David Taylor Is One Of The Best In The World P4P
David Taylor Is One Of The Best In The World P4P
When Taylor and Downey square off on July 25, we won't just be watching a grudge match, we'll be watching one of the top wrestlers in the entire world.
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David Taylor was considered one of the best wrestling prospects in the US from a very young age. He fulfilled those expectations in high school, college, and now at the World Championship level. While David has only represented the US at one World Championship, his remarkable wins make him not only the top man at 86kg, but one of the best wrestlers in the world regardless of weight.
Watch David Taylor vs Pat Downey LIVE on FloWrestling
Saturday, July 25 | 6:00 PM EST
The Case for Taylor's P4P Status
David Taylor currently sits in the #1 spot in the 86kg rankings and is ranked #6 in the pound-for-pound category. A big reason Taylor is so high on this list despite seeing limited action since 2018 is that he has two wins over the #7 man on this list, Hassan Yazdani of Iran, an Olympic gold medalist, two-time World gold medalist, World silver medalist, and World bronze medalist.
Taylor has two wins over Yazdani. Both followed a similar script. In both the 2017 World Cup and the 2018 World Championships, Yazdani used his high pace and potent underhooks to take an early lead but couldn't handle Taylor's pace as the match went on.
The first time they met, Yazdani's early action almost resulted in Taylor being disqualified for passivity before David eventually took control of the match and won by fall. In their second meeting at the 2018 World Championships, Yazdani led 6-2 after the first period, but David scored nine straight in the second for an 11-6 victory.
Taylor has two other wins over wrestlers in the pound-for-pound rankings. He teched #13 Sharif Sharifov (Olympic gold, World gold, World silver, and two-time World bronze) at the 2017 World Cup and also took a match from #3 J'den Cox (two-time World gold, Olympic bronze, and World bronze) in their best-of-three series at the 2017 World Team Trials.
Taylor's senior-level wins over World gold medalists date back to 2013 when he beat Magomed Kurbanaliev at Rumble on the Rails. He also has a nice collection of wins over World and Olympic medalists that includes Boris Makoev, Artur Naifonov, Vladislav Valiev, Fatih Erdin, Dato Marsagishvili, Alireza Karimi, Livan Lopez, Jabrayil Hasanov, and Koloi Kartoev.
Another of Taylor's most impressive wins came in the World Semifinals against Dauren Kurugliev. Not only Did Taylor have to overcome Kurugliev, who is currently ranked #4 in the world, he also sustained a serious kick to the head halfway through the first period that would have taken many wrestlers out of the match.
Taylor Continues To Challenge Himself
Not only is Taylor himself one of the best in the world, but he's also training in one of the best environments in the world as well. Kyle Snyder, the #14 wrestler in the world pound-for-pound, recently moved from the Ohio Regional Training Center to the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club. On The Bader Show, Taylor explained that he and Snyder are not only skilled enough to push each other, but they both approach practice sessions with a similar desire to score and improve.
Taylor is aware of his legacy and of how that legacy will grow when he has opportunities to challenge himself against the best opponents possible. In a recent interview, he even expressed an interest in wrestling Abdulrashid Sadulaev, the #1 pound-for-pound wrestler in the world.
