Nebraska wrestler AJ Ferrari apologizes for comments directed at Iowa State foe
Nebraska's AJ Ferrari wrestles Purdue's Hayden Filipovich in a heavyweight pound bout during a college wrestling match at the Devaney Center in Lincoln on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.
LINCOLN — Nebraska wrestler AJ Ferrari issued a public apology Wednesday for comments that insinuated the wrestler who beat him at the NCAA Championships may have used human growth hormone.
Iowa State’s Yonger Bastida beat Ferrari 15-7 in the heavyweight semifinals. After the match, Ferrari sat for public interviews with a variety of media outlets, including the Akron Beacon Journal. Ferrari said knee pain nearly kept him from wrestling in the semifinals — he medically forfeited from the rest of the tournament after the loss — and that he had beaten Bastida when both of them wrestled at 197 pounds.
Ferrari said he weighed in at 224 pounds and said Bastida weighed much more.
“Look at him now — tons of acne, tons of bacne,” Ferrari said of Bastida’s appearance.
“Whoever’s running the testing protocol for testing HGH probably should go test some people. And not just in the season but outside the season because he gained 30 pounds of muscle. But hey — I’m not making excuses.”
One night later, Bastida lost the NCAA finals to NC State’s Isaac Trumble, who graduated from Millard South.
Sunday night, Bastida’s strength coach, Ben Durbin — who goes by “Turbo Durbo” — went on X, explained Bastida’s transition from 197 to heavyweight and demanded an apology from Ferrari
Wednesday, Ferrari apologized on Nebraska wrestling’s official account.
“Some things were said in the interview, whenever I was interviewed, and wrestling’s a very, very emotional sport,” Ferrari said in part on a video. “After the semifinals match, I was speaking in the heat of the moment, I was not at all saying that Yonger Bastida is on HGH. If was taken the wrong way, I feel very badly about that. I respect Yonger a lot.”
Later, Ferrari posted on X that he had spoken on the phone to Bastida.
Bastida responded on X, saying he wanted to wrestle Ferrari again in a rubber match, since the two were 1-1 in their careers.
“Respect for the apology!” Bastida wrote on X. “But let’s be real, words don’t fix what happened If you really want to clear the air, step on the mat one more time with me at a (Real American Freestyle) event. No noise, no talking, “NO EXCUSES”, just WRESTLING. That’s where respect is earned for real. I’m not here for drama.”
“Give me time to heal up,” Ferrari wrote on X. “This time I won’t be wrestling with a torn knee. I declare war."
To that, Bastida, posted a picture on X of himself as an animated grim reaper, holding a sickle.
“Let’s get it,” Bastida wrote.
In another message on Instagram, Ferrari said he was being “facetious” and “joking” about the HGH comments. Ferrari also said he planned to return “next season,” which would require a NCAA waiver for another season of eligibility. Ferrari has been wrestling since the 2020-2021 season — which, due to COVID, did not count against a student-athlete’s eligibility clock — and will turn 25 this summer.
sam.mckewon@owh.com, 402-540-4222, twitter.com/swmckewonOWH
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