David Taylor is a name synonymous with wrestling greatness. The 3X world championship gold medalist who used to compete in the 86 kg weight category also bagged the gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Reaching the peak of his career with an Olympic Gold, Taylor has to grapple with another reality – continue the wrestling career at the highest level or try a different yet related field – MMA. That was before the humongous $6 Million OSU Contract came his way, which made him the highest-paid college wrestling coach in the US. The deal will continue till March 31, 2030, paying him a total sum of $6.45 million.

But before that, Tylor, now the head coach of Oklahoma State’s wrestling team, gave serious thought to the MMA ring. Speaking on the YouTube channel Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru and Henry, Taylor revealed, “I was definitely heavily considering it. Like I think after that fulfillment in Tokyo, you know you are just kind of figuring out like what do I want to keep wrestling, if I do you know you need to do it at a higher level or do I wanna move on. So I dabbled a little bit, I went out to factory X with Mark Montoya a couple of times, and really spent some time out there training.”

Before the Paris Olympics trial, Magic Man Taylor was the hot favorite for the 86 kg weight category. However, in a shocking twist, Aaron Brooks smashed his Olympic hope with back-to-back victory over the defending champion in the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials. Brookes also went on to clinch a bronze in the 86 kg category at the Paris Olympics. Speculation about his transitioning to MMA has been rife since 2018, when he took home the world title.
However, move seemed inevitable when Taylor defeated the junior wrestling world champion Bo Nickal at the 2020 olympic trials who transitioned into the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight. Taylor seems to line MMA as well. “I really liked it, you know. I kind of a at the time I had a plan, I am like I am going to train and I am gonna you know when I am done wrestling I’ll make the transition MMA.” 

But now Taylor has ended speculation about whether fans will see him in the MMA fighting ring. The road to success in the MMA ring seems to be long and tiresome to David Taylor, who thinks he has to start over, something he doesn’t want to do. Revealing his thoughts, Taylor said, “You know being older like I don’t want to go through that long journey that long process and realize, like if I decided to do this it’s really is probably an expedited route and if that’s the case, you know you are going to be, there’s no easy you know like work into it like you gotta be ready to go. I think when it kinda came down to it I wasn’t really prepared to start over in my career and take that longer route, you know developmental route and learn and get ring time and yes I follow it and I follow it pretty closely, I mean I pretty much watch every single fight. You know I think it’s super fun to watch and I just decided It really wasn’t the path that I wanted to take but I definitely considered it for you for sure.”

However, the allure of MMA to wrestlers isn’t new. Several wrestlers have made successful transitions to mixed martial arts (MMA).

Wrestlers Who Aced the Octagon

Several athletes have leveraged their wrestling prowess to excel at MMA, utilizing their grappling skills and strength to ace the octagon. The most notable of them is Henry Cajudo, who won the 55kg freestyle gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He moved to MMA in 2013, fighting in the flyweight and bantamweight category. He became the fourth UFC fighter to simultaneously hold titles in the two weight classes.

Another prominent name is Kamaru Usman, a former NCAA Division second wrestler at the University of Nebraska who won a national championship in 2010. He moved to UFC in 2015 and became a 5x UFC Welterweight champion. It’s evident that MMA and UFC offer an alluring setting for wrestlers to make a name for themselves. However, David Taylor chose a different route, putting him in charge of forging champions like him and pushing the wrestling legacy forward.