After shoving football dreams aside, J'den Cox is sitting with a bye to the World Team Trials finals on Saturday in Lincoln, NE. The three-time NCAA champion earned this by virtue of his bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games. Hypothesizing who could give him the biggest challenge is difficult in that the 22-year-old's domestic resume is still short, and we don't know what type of wrestler will test truly test Cox.

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So for this breakdown, it seems like you throw technique and matchups out and just focus on the hot hand.
 
There's little doubt about it: David Taylor is the hottest wrestler in America right now. Nobody is putting more distance between himself and his opponents than the Magic Man. DT won every match at the Open by either pin or tech -- let that sink in for just a moment. Nobody at the Open did anything that resembled Taylor's kind of dominance.
 
After winning OW at the U.S. Open, Taylor will be tasked with the challenge tournament at the trials on June 10.  

Brett Pfarr snuck a takedown against J'den Cox this year with some scrambling:
 
Where Taylor can beat Cox is in forcing scrambles on the mat. While J'den has always been an underrated scrambler, if DT can get to far ankle type of positions on the mat, there's a chance Taylor can out-finesse Cox.
 
Taylor's hand fighting is incredible, and his work off the collar is as predictable as it is successful. The challenge will be getting to those ties. J'den is a master of making the matches take place where he wants them. So if you see J'den getting moved around in a collar, things are not going as planned for the Missouri Tiger alum.
 
Taylor's excellence is far from limited to just the domestic scene. In February, Taylor knocked off two Olympic champions (2016 champ Hassan Yazdanicharati and 2012 champion Sharif Sharifov) as well as Olympic bronze medalist Dato Marsagishvili.
 
For Cox, his single to Taylor's lead leg is his best attack, but if he gets there, Cox will need to tread lightly and make sure he finishes high. Any other attempts could play right into DT's wheelhouse. While I highly doubt J'den has any preference at all in who he sees, there's not much doubting who poses the biggest threat -- it's the Magic Man.

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