After winning the gold in Tokyo, David Taylor had big plans of dominating the wrestling fraternity for a long time. Little did he know that his journey from the riches to the rags would be a swift one. Touted as one of the favorites to win the gold medal in the men’s 86 kg category in Paris, Taylor came face to face with Aaron Brooks. Competing at the US Trials, Brooks hit Taylor like a road roller, smashing him down and rupturing his Paris dreams into oblivion. Suffering a shock loss not only made Taylor lose an Olympic berth. But it also wreaked havoc on his reputation. 

After cutting off ties for a while, David Taylor announced his new role as the wrestling coach for Oklahoma State University. This seemed like a clear message to his fans that Taylor will not be wrestling anymore. But there’s something funny with champions. You will never know what their next move could be. And bam! Just like that, four months later, David Taylor is competing at the Wrestling World Championships. And while he was initially hesitant to switch roles, Taylor is now looking as eager as ever to take on his opponents and come out on top. 

David Taylor is excited for the World Championships 

Trying to get back his ‘Magic Man’ mojo, David Taylor has qualified into the 92 kg weight class at the worlds. Taking place in Tirana, Albania, from October 28 to 31, the world championships will feature all the weight classes that were not a part of the recently concluded Paris Olympics. With the record book pretty much in his favor, David Taylor will look to make a hattrick of gold medals at the World Championships this time. Having already won the titles in 2022 and 2023, ‘The Magic Man’ will be eager to prove to the world that he is not done yet. 

And you can tell the hunger building within Taylor. Having lost a chance to travel to the French capital tormented Taylor in the worst possible ways. Looking to make amends while questioning his wrestling retirement, Taylor said, “It’s something that everyone in this room is aspiring to do… So, I think it’s a good thing for the guys to continue to see that. I’m excited to go wrestle.” Surprisingly, the same energy level from Taylor was missing, as he thought being a coach would have hampered his time to compete significantly. 

Taylor was of the opinion that being a full-time coach had some significant responsibilities toward the team. Speaking about his chances to compete at the worlds, Taylor almost dismissed it, saying that Oklahoma has got huge momentum and his absence would harm the progress significantly. And that was something that Taylor could not afford to do. As a coach, his greatest responsibility lay in nurturing the budding wrestlers of tomorrow. Luckily for Taylor, fate had some splendid things in store for him. 

Commenting on Taylor’s prospects of getting back into mainstream wrestling, OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg had some exciting news. He stated that OSU was in full support of David Taylor’s ambitions and will back him in every way possible. Weiberg said, “I think it’s a great thing any time that we can put the brand of the programme out in the wrestling world.” Well, now that Taylor is fighting to make OSU proud, he might just be getting a dream match that was heavily anticipated for years. 

David Taylor’s tryst with Abdulrashid Sadulaev: A reality? 

If David Taylor is the ‘Magic Man’ of the US, Abdurashid Sadulaev is the ‘Russian Tank’. The duo reigned supreme in their primes and took down literally every opponent they faced. Being a regular at the top half of the pound-for-pound rankings in the past decade, Sadulaev has won almost all the major titles since 2014. Adding to that, Sadulaev also has a whopping 5 world championship titles and a couple of Olympic golds to his name.

Thus, quite expectedly, a matchup between Sadulaev and Taylor would have been a banger. But with both the wrestlers fighting at different weight classes, it was not possible for the duo to come to a middle ground. But that was until the 2024 worlds, where both the stalwarts will be fighting in the 92 kg division, making the once impossible fight a stark reality. 

Commenting on the importance of the match, David Taylor said in a video uploaded by the Stillwater Frontier Rotary Club, “Now he’s coming down to wrestle at 92 kilos. It’s a matchup where the whole world stops and watches. He’s a five-time world champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and has only lost twice. He was silver in 2017 and got hurt in 2023, so he’s pretty good.” Bracing up for the dream matchup, Taylor too, has shown some electric form. In the US World Team Trials, Taylor swept his competition with ease. That included getting the better of Zahid Valencia, who was the 2023 world bronze medalist. Thus, with the battle lines drawn, all eyes will be on Albania to watch an epic unfold in a few weeks from now.