Abdulrashid Sadulaev reminded the world simply how good he’s throughout the opening spherical of the Senior World Championships on Wednesday.
The 28-year-old from Dagestan, who has captured two Olympic gold medals, earned a dominant shutout efficiency over American David Taylor in one of the vital anticipated wrestling matches in current historical past. Sadulaev earned a 7-0 victory as he moved onto the following spherical of the match whereas including one other Olympic legend to his resume after Taylor gained gold for the USA on the 2020 video games.
The match came about at 92kgs — a weight class that doesn’t exist within the Olympics — with Taylor shifting up from his normal 86kgs weight and Sadulaev dropping down after ruling over the 97kgs division for the previous few years.
An early takedown try from Taylor led to the primary rating within the match as Sadulaev sprawled out and reversed positions for a fast two factors. One other snap down, go behind for Sadulaev scored one other two factors as he went 4-0 on the finish of the primary interval.
The second interval performed out a lot the identical with Sadulaev scoring some extent on a push out — forcing Taylor off the mat — after which one other reversal for the ultimate two factors within the match. The ultimate rating ended at 7-0 with Sadulaev making an enormous assertion along with his victory over Taylor.
The extremely anticipated match came about after Sadulaev was pressured to take a seat out of the 2024 Olympics as a Russian athlete who was not allowed to compete on the video games in Paris after his residence nation invaded the Ukraine. Whereas many Russians ended up competing for various nations or showing as impartial athletes, Sadulaev was one in every of a handful of wrestlers not allowed to compete in any respect.
The efficiency from Sadulaev additionally marked his return to the win column after his look on the 2023 World Championships resulted in disappointment when he suffered an damage and finally a loss to Akhmed Tazhudinov within the finals at 97kgs. Tazhudinov ended up profitable gold on the 2024 Olympics with a lopsided efficiency over the sphere together with a win over American Kyle Snyder, who captured a gold medal of his personal again in 2016.
With the win, Sadulaev stormed again to the highest of the rankings whereas making a convincing argument that he could also be the most effective wrestler of this complete technology.
As for Taylor, he suffers a defeat after he missed out on the 2024 Olympics following an upset loss to fellow Penn State alum Aaron Brooks throughout the U.S. Olympic trials. Brooks went onto seize a bronze medal in Taylor’s absence.
