Behind the Magic Man: A Look at the Career of David Taylor
Photo by ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images
A prodigious wrestling talent that traveled all over the country seeking the best competition from a young age, David Taylor was the premier name in high school and was tabbed as a major future star. Born in Nevada, Taylor relocated to Wyoming and trained in Utah under the mentorship of an American wrestling legend, the four-time undefeated NCAA champion Cael Sanderson. Taylor would eventually find himself competing for Graham High School in St. Paris, Ohio, a wrestling powerhouse. David put together a spectacular high school career that saw him win four straight Ohio state titles and finished with a 180-2 career record. Today, he is the 2018 World champion at 86 kg and one of the best pound-for-pound wrestlers in the world.
High School and Age-Group Freestyle
While in high school, Taylor carved out a reputation for himself as an elite freestyler, dominating domestic competition with a staggering five combined Cadet and Junior national titles at Fargo, including a 2006 98 pound cadet national title win over future rival Kyle Dake. Taylor’s domestic success propelled him to international opportunities after having won the Cadet World Team Trials to get the chance to compete at the 2007 50 KG world championships. An early 9-6 win over Nurlan Orozbekuu of Kyrgyzstan sent him into a second round match against future 5x World/Olympic medalist Hassan Rahimi of Iran, who would defeat Taylor 9-3 across three periods.
The top recruit across any weight for the class of 2009, Taylor originally committed to wrestle at Iowa State so that he could have the chance to compete under his mentor Cael Sanderson. But when Sanderson made move to Penn State, so did Taylor. He redshirted during the 2009-2010 season at 157 pounds for the Nittany Lions.
Folkstyle and Freestyle while at Penn State
The summer of 2010 would see Taylor capture the 70 kilogram University national title with a 6-0 record. However, Taylor would taste bitter defeat against former teammate Bubba Jenkins in the 2011 NCAA finals, losing by pin after what had been a flawless 38-0 season up to that point. Taylor wouldn’t compete again in another domestic freestyle event until the Summer of 2012, where after having won his first collegiate national title and Hodge trophy at 165 pounds with a perfect 32-0 record, Taylor tested himself against the best senior level talent in the country at the U.S. Olympic trials challenge tournament. The challenge tournament winner would get a chance to wrestle against the defending World champion Jordan Burroughs.
An opening round 0-4, 5-3, 3-1 comeback win against 2x All-American Moza Fay gave him the chance to compete against 2010 national champion Andrew Howe, who would outscore Taylor 1-0, 5-0 across two periods. Two wins over successful past All-Americans Mike Poeta and Colt Sponseller set up a match to qualify for the third place match against three-time national champion Kyle Dake. In what would become the beginning of a long running senior level rivalry, a pivotal scramble from Dake put Taylor on his back and secured him the pin victory. Dake would finish his tournament by placing third with a 3-0, 1-1 win against Nick Marable.
Taylor’s junior season for the Nittany Lions would find him once again facing off against Dake, this time in the 2012 NWCA All Star Classic match. Dake walked away with a 2-1 win in a match that went into multiple overtime periods. His penultimate college meeting against Dake would be in the finals of the 2013 Southern Scuffle, in which Dake would yet again walk away with a close win, this time to the tune of a 3-2 victory. Taylor went on a dominant run to his third straight Big Ten title, followed by four consecutive falls at NCAA’s, including one over returning All-American Conrad Polz that avenged a 2010 loss from the Junior world team trials. This set up his final collegiate match against the reigning three-time national champion across three different weights (141,149,157), Kyle Dake. An early takedown for Taylor looked to be a major turning point toward avenging his trio of prior losses to Dake. However, Dake would recover and use his superior scrambling and defense to take a 6-5 win over the Hodge Trophy winner, earning him his fourth consecutive national title.
After a frustrating ending to the 2013 season that saw Taylor fall short after coming his closest yet to beating Dake, he sought to recover by competing at the U.S. Open. Standing in his path was the reigning two-time World/Olympic champion Jordan Burroughs, Taylor’s greatest challenge up to that point. Defeating past All-American’s Ryan Morningstar and Nick Marable to make the finals, Taylor would get his chance to wrestle against Burroughs. Initially stifling Burroughs with his length and scrambling ability, Taylor was gradually picked apart by the Burroughs and fell in the first period 3-1. A 1-0 second period was defined by an intelligently selected Burroughs offense and Taylor’s inability to break through the powerful defense of Burroughs.
In what was a bizarre pairing giving the weight disparity between them, Taylor would compete against the severely undersized 2012 66 KG Junior world champion Magomed Kurbanaliev of Russia at the Rumble on The Rails event for Beat the Streets. Pinning Kurbanaliev with ease in a headlock off a scramble, Taylor’s next freestyle event would be at University nationals where he strung together a dominating 8-0 run to get the chance to compete at the University World Games. But before he could step foot in Russia to face the world’s best at his age group, he would try his hand again at the senior world team trials.
Taylor beat Moza Fay 9-1 in his first round, putting him in the quarterfinals against his college nemesis Kyle Dake. Dake, a man possessed the whole tournament, would walk away with a 7-4 win on his way to what would be a runner-up finish to the reigning two time World/Olympic champion Jordan Burroughs. Rebounding with wins against Ryan Morningstar and 2009 World representative Trent Paulson, Taylor would now face off against the returning Olympic trials runner-up Andrew Howe, who had beaten him a year before in the challenge tournament quarterfinals. In what was a stunning turn of events, Taylor would tech fall Howe 9-0 with a series of turns from par-terre to finish third at world team trials.
Advancing to the quarterfinals of the University World Games, Taylor would face off against his toughest international competition yet, two-time World champion and returning Olympic bronze medalist Denis Tsargush of Russia. Taylor would hold strong against the Russian stalwart early, but was felled by the savvy defense and counters of Tsargush to lose 7-4. Culminating his run at the University World Games with a 10-3 win over Gombodorj Dorjvaachang of Mongolia for bronze, the sights were now set for Taylor to finish his final college season competing for Penn State.
Taylor’s 2013-2014 campaign was historic, finishing with a 34-0 undefeated record and earning the distinguished honor of being only the third man ever to win the Hodge Trophy multiple times. The other past recipients were three-time winner, four-time national champion Cael Sanderson of Iowa State, and two-time winner Ben Askren, who was a two-time NCAA champion for Missouri. The momentum Taylor had from the spectacular culmination of his collegiate career carried over into the U.S. Open, where he would make the finals with ease. This included a 6-0 win in the semis in a rematch of the NCAA finals against Tyler Caldwell. Awaiting him in the finals was the reigning three-time World/Olympic champion Jordan Burroughs, who had beaten Taylor in the prior year’s U.S. Open finals. Taylor, more filled out and offensively refined than before, controlled much of the match against Burroughs, carrying a strong lead late into the match until the Olympic champion Burroughs came roaring back to steal a 7-6 win and deny Taylor gold.
David Taylor’s Senior Level Career
Taylor returned to action at the Beat the Streets exhibition event, facing off against two-time world bronze medalist, reigning University World Games runner-up Jabrayil Hasanov of Azerbaijan. Taylor showed up in a major way by picking apart the talented Azeri 6-0 to take his second win over a senior world medalist in as many Beat the Streets events. Having won a guaranteed spot in the World team trials from his runner-up finish at the U.S. Open, Taylor would make his first world team trials finals off a 3-1 semifinal win over Andrew Howe. In a best of three finals match series against three-time World/Olympic champion Jordan Burroughs, Taylor would drop the first match 6-2 before mounting a serious comeback in the second match that looked to see him push Burroughs to a third match, but Burroughs stopped his momentum with a 6-5 win.
2015 for Taylor would begin at one of the deepest international tournaments there is, the prestigious Yasar Dogu in Istanbul, Turkey. Making a dominant run to the semis, Taylor would run into reigning World champion Denis Tsargush in a 6-3 loss. Making the bronze medal match, Taylor would be faced with yet another returning world champion, this time Khetik Tsabolov who had taken gold at 70 kilograms in Tashkent. Tsabolov proved too be too much for the talented American, as the North Ossetian hammered Taylor in a 9-3 win.
The domestic scene would be kinder to Taylor as he would win his first U.S. Open title with a 2-0 win over Andrew Howe after his frustrating run Istanbul. After that, another match at Beat the Streets and another win over a world medalist, this time in the form of four-time World/Olympic medalist Livan Lopez Azcuy of Cuba. Taylor absolutely routed him in an 18-7 match. A U.S. Open title and a dominant victory over a returning world medalist put Taylor in a fantastic position going into World team trials but there was one man who stood in his way: Kyle Dake. Controlling the center of the mat and capitalizing off counters to extended shots from Taylor, Dake would handily take an 8-2 victory over the reigning U.S. Open champion to make the finals. Rebounding for bronze, Taylor would win a commanding 6-0 match over Yarygin runner-up Andrew Howe. Stuck at a domestic crossroads, Taylor went out east and then up in weight.
86 KG
The latter half of Taylor’s 2015 campaign began with a gold medal at the Grand Prix of Spain, which was followed up by a impressive title-winning performance at the Sargsyan Cup in Armenia, where he tech falled 2013 Russian national champion Kakhaber Khubezhty of Russia in the finals. The Sargsyan cup would prove to be Taylor’s final tournament at 74 kilograms, as the Nittany Lion great would debut in Baku at the Golden Grand Prix 12 kilograms heavier at 86.
A respectable 8-4 opening win over 2013 Asian champion of Umidyon Ismanov of Uzbekistan advanced him to a match against Junior world champion Nurmagomed Gadzhiev of Azerbaijan who would beat Taylor 6-0. Facing him in the bronze medal match would be two time World/Olympic bronze medalist Ehsan Lashgari of Iran, and Taylor would fall to the physicality of Lashgari in a lopsided 10-0 technical fall loss.
The conclusion of 2015 would see Taylor compete again at the U.S. Open, granted this one was to qualify athletes for the 2016 Olympic Trials which meant the field was a little different than usual. If there were worries regarding Taylor’s ability to handle the physicality of 86 kilograms after his unspectacular performance in Baku, those worries would be put to rest immediately as Taylor dispatched of former teammate three time NCAA champion and returning world rep Ed Ruth in a 13-0 win. Richard Perry, a former college 197 who was a three time NCAA qualifier for Bloomsburg, would get taken out in similarly dominant fashion by Taylor in a 11-0 win. But Taylor wasn’t the only man who decided to move up north to prepare for the Olympics. And who else to test Taylor than one of his greatest rivals in Kyle Dake? Dake would be the answer, in the finals he capitalized off a knee pull single into a series of guts to go up 8-0. Taylor would chip away, but Dake would ultimately come away in his most resounding victory yet over the surging Taylor, a 11-4 win.
Taylor’s first competition of 2016 would be yet another career defining moment that saw him thrash past World medalists and national champions like Jake Herbert and Keith Gavin. But a 4-3 loss to Kyle Dake in the semifinals meant Taylor would have to settle for a bronze medal. Another Grand Prix of Spain title came for Taylor soon after, but this time in a far better field, with Zahid Valencia and a pair of Olympians in Istvan Vereb of Hungary and Uitemen Orgodol of Mongolia falling to Taylor. Taylor’s 2016 ended with a 3-1 record at the World Club Cup. He suffered a rocky 6-2 loss to 2014 World rep Dmytro Rochniak of Ukraine in his second match, but Taylor finished strong with a career best win at 86 kilograms, a 12-6 triumph over 2015 World bronze medalist and Rio Olympian Alireza Karimimachiani of Iran.
The Uncrowned King
2017 was the year that made Taylor’s career. It set the precedent for him as the man to beat at 86 kilograms in the absence of reigning three-time World/Olympic champion Abdulrashid Sadulaev of Russia. A title at the Grand Prix of Paris came in dominant fashion as he notched impressive wins over European bronze medalist Istvan Vereb of Hungary 10-0 and a 8-5 win over domestic stalwart Richard Perry of the United States. While Perry and Vereb are good names, they’re not enough to make a justifiable argument to take control of the weight left by one of Russia’s all time great. That’s where the World Cup would come into play.
David Taylor’s 2017 World Cup run is spectacular for so many reasons. Let’s start with his first match against two-time World/Olympic bronze medalist Dato Marsagishvili of Georgia, who was supposed to be too big and too good of a scrambler for Taylor. Taylor outhustled him in an 8-3 win. His next match was against past Junior world champion and Yarygin bronze medalist Vladislav Valiev of Russia, who had just upset Shamil Kudiyamagomedov, the 2013 Russian national champion many saw as the guy to beat at 86 kilograms in Sadulaev’s absence. Outside of an early single leg that became an explosive double leg for Valiev that put Taylor down 4-0, it was all one-way traffic for Taylor as he broke Valiev for a 14-4 win. Not to be outdone by himself, Taylor’s next match would be returning Olympic bronze medalist and 2x World/Olympic champion Sharif Sharifov of Azerbaijan. Complete domination, a 12-2 win for Taylor.
The final match of his World Cup run would see him face off against reigning Olympic champion Hassan Yazdani Charati of Iran, who had made the move up 86 kilograms as well. Yazdani had possibly the most attention of anyone at that time, coming back to win in the Olympic finals with ten seconds left against a bloodied Russian boogeyman Aniuar Geduev, who had upset 74 kilogram kingpin Jordan Burroughs earlier in Rio. Yazdani would be Taylor’s final test in Kermanshah, and while the early pressure of Yazdani put Taylor on his heels a bit, Taylor retaliated with strong leg attacks and scrambling and was able to capitalize on a late attack to cap off his world cup run with a pin over Hassan Yazdani Charati.
Taylor’s second U.S. Open title was his most dominant performance yet, outscoring his opponents 45-4 with 4 techs and one pin. This set up Taylor on a collision course with returning Olympic bronze medalist J’den Cox at the World Team Trials. Between the U.S. Open and World Team Trials, Taylor would pin Takahiro Murayama of Japan in another marquee Beat the Streets matchup.
At the 2017 World Team Trials, Taylor teched Pat Downey and Joe Rau to make the challenge tournament finals where in a rematch of the U.S. Open semis, he would face Nick Heflin, a 2014 197 pound NCAA runner-up for Ohio State. Heflin’s fearsome strength was on full display early in his match against Taylor, getting to an early lead off his notorious headpinch counter. Taylor kept pressing and was able to build his lead and come back to win 13-9 to get his shot against Cox.
In what would be a career defining match series for both men, Taylor would go up early in match one against Cox after a single leg that got driven out of bounds appeared to injur Cox. Taylor kept pouring on pressure to take a 9-3 win. It was assumed after the injury that Cox had suffered, he would default the next match and Taylor would be crowned the World rep and be the favorite to win Worlds. But that didn’t happen. In one of the most stunning displays of resilience wrestling has ever seen, Cox came back and was able to stymy Taylor with his defense and speed and score off his knee pull single to take the second match 4-3 and force a third. The third match would look much the same, with Taylor protesting against Cox’s lack of action, but regardless of the protest Cox was able to keep the hard charging Taylor from taking home gold and cut short the fantastic 2017 run he had.
The world championships were especially frustrating to watch from the sidelines as J’den Cox suffered a head scratching semifinals loss to Boris Makoev, a North Ossetian transfer for Slovakia. Even more frustrating for Taylor was seeing Yazdani Charati come away with gold, and Vladislav Valiev take bronze. Having beaten both men in resounding fashion and lost controversially to Cox, it was a very bitter pill to swallow and it fueled Taylor to come back stronger. Finishing the year at the World Club Cup, Taylor would walk away with a 5-0 record and another win in the finals this time to a 3-1 score.
The Coronation
Taylor’s 2018 would start out in yet another meat grinder of a tournament in the form of the prestigious Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix. A qualification round match against 2017 Pan-Am champion Yurieski Torreblanca of Cuba pushed Taylor to the brink and he barely escaped with a 4-4. Not getting any easier, a quarterfinal match against three time World/Olympic medalist Selim Yasar of Turkey awaited him. Walking away with a controlled 4-1 win over the defensively stingy Yasar, Taylor would face off against the surging Artur Naifonov in the semifinals.
Artur Naifonov’s momentum went as far back as the 2017 Junior world championships where he blew through the field and handled Zahid Valencia in the finals. A title at the Sargsyan over Batyrbek Tsakulov was followed by bronze at the Ugra Cup because of a semifinal loss to 2016 74 KG Yarygin champion Zaur Makiev. Naifonov’s final two competitions of 2017 would be huge in regaining his momentum. First at the Alrosa Cup, he upset European championships runner-up Aleksandr Gostiev of Azerbaijan and his title run in December to the end the year at the Alans saw him beat Tsakulov and Gostiev again. But more importantly, he upset the defending world bronze medalist and Russian national champion Vladislav Valiev in the finals. Naifonov’s path to the Yarygin semis even more established him as the man to beat in Russia, as he beat the reigning U-23 world champion Alikhan Zhabrailov and reigning Yarygin and European champion Dauren Kurugliev.
The match between Naifonov and Taylor started off with a bang as Naifonov was able to get an arm drag and a gut to go up 4-0 on Taylor. Taylor responded back scoring with a single leg and finished and quickly transitioned to a bar arm and used it to rack turn Naifonov to get a 14-4 score before securing the pin. Taylor was clearly the strongest force in the world at 86 kg. In the finals against Turkish upstart Fatih Erdin, who had just upset returning world bronze medalist Vladislav Valiev of Russia in the semis, Taylor would fall behind early from an Erdin chest wrap, but as he did against Naifonov, quickly came back and pinned Erdin off a bar arm to win gold.
Taylor’s 2018 World Cup run, this time on domestic soil, may not have been equal in depth to 2017 but surpassed it in dominance, outscoring his competition 45-3 with four technical superiority victories. Soon after a third U.S. open title came to Taylor in dominant fashion with key wins being over old foe Richard Perry and 2016 184 pound NCAA runner-up TJ Dudley. Taylor’s first Pan-American title would be won in yet another razor thin match against Yurieski Torreblanca, this time with a 3-2 score against the defending Pan-Am champion. Sitting in the finals of the World Team Trials tournament, Taylor was well rested and prepared to win the spot, and did so in resounding fashion outsourcing Nick Reenan 23-2 across two matches to win the world team spot.
Taylor would finally make a return to international competition at what had come to be a stacked field at the Yasar Dogu. As was the case for his 2017 world cup run, Taylor would face all the best competition, starting off with the returning U-23 world runner-up Azamat Dauletbekov of Kazakhstan who, after an early big takedown against Taylor, was pinned. Following up was the returning World runner-up Boris Makoev of Slovakia, who Taylor pinned. The semis would see Taylor face off with Ahmed Bilici, a man who looked to be in contention to take the Turkish starting spot over multiple time World medalist Selim Yasar and Yarygin runner-up Fatih Erdin. It meant nothing more to Taylor, as he pinned Bilici. Standing across him in the finals was Murad Suleymanov of Azerbaijan, a powerful but inconsistent highly physical wrestler who had just pinned Yarygin runner-up Fatih Erdin of Turkey. Taylor pinned him in the first period.
A dominant showing like the one Taylor had at the Yasar Dogu put him in the driver’s seat going into the World championships, and he would have to prove his mettle right out of the gate as in his opening round match he would take on returning world champion Hassan Yazdani Charati of Iran. A World finals caliber match that was to take place in the qualification round. It was a match that for many would take hours, days, weeks, months to visualize and prepare for and it’s the first match right out of the gate. A tall task, especially given the lofty expectations put on Taylor after his performance in 2018 and he would not disappoint, dismantling the pressure of the hard charging Iranian in a brilliant 11-6 win.
The next win would come easier for him as Taylor tech falled 2014 Junior Russian national champion Gadzhi Radzhabov of Belarus. Waiting for him in the quarterfinals would be Torreblanca of Cuba, who had given Taylor his toughest matches all year. Taylor took him out 8-0. The big semifinal match against the Russian hulk Dauren Kurugliev would be the make or break moment that would guarantee that Taylor’s lifetime of training and his past two career defining years at 86 kilograms were worth it, or if he would have to go back to the drawing board. After an early knockout win for Kurugliev off a limp leg that turned into a spinning back kick, Taylor was able to claw his way back and take back a 7-5 win over the Russian hammer and make the World finals.
Taylor had already wrestled two World final quality opponents in one day. The elite of the class was him, Yazdani, and Kurugliev, and it was clear to everyone. This showed even more in the finals, as Taylor would rematch his Yarygin finals match against Fatih Erdin and absolutely handle him for a 12-2 gold medal win. Always a dominant champion, but never the man who beat the champion, in weights defined by all time greats, Taylor had finally done it and came out on top as the undisputed king of 86 kilograms in a pound for pound great making performance.
Taylor’s 2019 would be a short one, winning a Pan-Am championships title over Pedro Ceballos Fuentes of Venezuela before suffering a season ending knee injury at Beat the Streets against NCAA champion for Northern Iowa Drew Foster. Taylor’s return to the competition would be at the Pan-Am Olympic Games qualifier where he pinned Ceballos Fuentes in his first match and beat Yurieski Torreblanca of Cuba in the semis 8-0 before getting a forfeit over Ambrocio of Peru.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Taylor wouldn’t compete again until July, where he would tech fall 2019 U.S. Open runner-up Myles Martin 11-0. Following the success of his dominating turn against Martin, Taylor would match up against a resurgent Gabe Dean, a two time NCAA champion for Cornell who had returned from a three year retirement in competition and won gold at 2020 the U.S. Open. Dean’s pace proved to be an issue for Taylor throughout the match, but Taylor was able to hold on to come away with a close 6-2 win.
The man to beat at 86 kilograms, David Taylor will get a fifth shot at one of the true legends of the sport, five time World/Olympic champion Jordan Burroughs, one of his greatest long time rivals. Both men looking to finalize their legacy as the quad comes to the end and the 2021 Olympics come closer and closer, will Taylor finally get revenge or will Burroughs prove he has another trick up his sleeve for the Magic Man?