American David Taylor lost to Russian Abdulrashid Sadulaev in the first round of the world championships in a match between Olympic gold medalists and formerly two of the best pound-for-pound wrestlers.
Sadulaev blanked Taylor 7-0 in Taylor’s final career tournament in Tirana, Albania, to advance in the 92kg division. While Sadulaev later advanced to Thursday’s final, Taylor still has a chance at bronze in the repechage.
These world championships are for non-Olympic weight classes. Wrestlers who competed at the Paris Games are not eligible.
Taylor, 33, was denied the chance to defend his Tokyo Olympic 86kg title in Paris due to losing in the Olympic Trials finals in April to Aaron Brooks.
He then retired to take the Oklahoma State head coaching job, then unretired (while still coaching the Cowboys), qualified for the world team and announced this will be his last competition.
Sadulaev, 28, was not among the Russians invited to compete in the Paris Olympics by an IOC panel that determined neutral athlete eligibility. None of the invited wrestlers from Russia ended up competing at the Games.
Sadulaev won Olympic gold in Rio at 86kg and in Tokyo at 97kg, plus two world titles at each weight between 2014 and 2019.
Later Wednesday, 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs, who owns an American record seven combined Olympic and world titles, lost his quarterfinal match at 79kg 6-4 to Mohammad Nokhodi of Iran. Nokhodi lost his next match, which eliminated Burroughs from what could be the American’s last tournament.
Burroughs, 36, had beaten Nokhodi, 23, in gold-medal matches at worlds in 2021 and 2022.
Americans Macey Kilty and Kylie Welker earned bronze medals at 65kg and 72kg, respectively, on Wednesday. Both wrestle for the University of Iowa.
Kilty, 23, was runner-up at Olympic Trials at 62kg in 2021 and 2024, plus earned world silver at 65kg in 2023. Welker was an Olympic Trials runner-up in 2021 at age 17, then won a U23 World title last Friday in Albania.
Sadulaev defeated David Taylor 7-0 😳
— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) October 30, 2024
Check out the scoring highlight⬇️ pic.twitter.com/WpZl45EK9V
