J’den Cox, bronze medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, added another bronze to his resume when he finished third in the 86-kilogram freestyle weight class at the United World Wrestling Senior World Championships on Friday.
Cox defeated Mihail Ganev of Bulgaria, the 2010 world champion in the 84-kilogram class, in dominant fashion, winning the match with a final score of 8-0.
Cox won his first four matches before a surprise loss to Slovakia’s Boris Makeoev in the semifinals took him out of the running for the world title.
After that loss, fellow American wrestler David Taylor tweeted criticism of how Cox wrestled against Makeoev.
Cox had the golden goose served on the Golden platter to be WC w/ that draw. He is too talented to have no fight down 6-1. Makes me sick.
— David Taylor (@magicman_psu) August 25, 2017
After Cox won gold, he told FloWrestling he’d like to give a “big special thank you to David Taylor. Thank you for the motivation, because without your critique I don’t know if I would have been up to it.”
Cox is a three-time NCAA champion who graduated from Missouri University in May. He’ll return to MU as a volunteer assistant coach after worlds.
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