When David Taylor stepped into the legendary John Smith’s shoes at the Oklahoma State wrestling coach position, everyone thought his professional career was over. Reeling from the disappointment of not making it to the Paris Olympics, it felt like coaching was what he was going to concentrate on. However, David Taylor returned to competitive wrestling with a bang as he dominated the US World Team trials and secured a spot at the Senior World Championships.

Many in the wrestling community have started comparing him with Jordan Burroughs. Even though it still remains a mystery whether he’ll compete at the World Championships, he is still popping up in fans’ conversations. Now, an NCAA coach has given his opinion on why Burroughs can have a longer career than David Taylor despite being three years older.

Jordan Burroughs could go further in his career than David Taylor

At the Weighing in podcast, Grant Turner, the coach of Grand View, talked about why Jordan Burroughs can wrestle for a longer period than David Taylor. This is because Taylor has a lot of responsibilities in his new job as the Oklahoma State head coach. Turner said, “David’s got, um, a different career path with, um, you know, his being the head coach of Oklahoma State and all the responsibilities that basically come along with that.”

The position is not easy to handle, which Taylor figured out quite a while ago. In his early days as the coach, David noticed that the athletes were not in the right shape to compete at the NCAA. He decided to immediately put them in a stricter fitness regime to produce better results. Thus, he has a lot of work to do.

Turner also talked about how the LA Olympics might seem like a distant dream for David Taylor and Jordan Burroughs right now. While Burroughs will have to come down to his weight of 74 kg, Taylor will have come down to 86 kg, back from 92, which is where he fought in the trials. Turner said, “So as you get longer in your career and basically all those types of things, I think it will come to like a decision process for both of them.”

While the next Olympics seems very far right now, Taylor can take comfort in his performances at the US World Team trials, which proved that he still had the ability to defeat tough opponents. But his rivalry with Jordan Burroughs has a long history, which came to its climax in 2021.

When David Taylor and Jordan Burroughs faced off in 2021

2021 brought the physical tussle of the two wrestlers, Jordan Burroughs and David Taylor, after a long time in the 74 kg category. Ever since he snatched the Olympic gold in 2012, the category was witnessed to be dominated by Burroughs. He had also dismantled Taylor in four earlier matches by beating him every time. Taylor had resigned to his fate to move to 86 kg in 2015. However, after a huge back and forth between both wrestlers, he moved back down to 74 to fight once again with his archrival.

It was a fantastic match as David Taylor put on a strong display over Burroughs and took a lead of 4-0. Nevertheless, counting an Olympic gold medalist out in those situations never went well with anybody. Jordan Burroughs came back to make it 4-4, but Taylor was finally going to take revenge this time since he won by decision. He thus gained the first victory over the six-time World Champion. Anyone who witnessed the match would feel that the US team is fortunate to have such elite wrestlers in their line-up like them.