David Taylor's Biggest International Wins

David Taylor's Biggest International Wins

David Taylor has racked up wins over eight world or Olympic medalists in his senior level career

May 15, 2017 by Wrestling Nomad
David Taylor's Biggest International Wins
To quote Will Ferrell in Zoolander, "That David Taylor's so hot right now." He's been cruising through his competition lately, but he's been slowly picking up wins over high level guys for years.

Did you know that Taylor has wins over nine different guys with senior level World or Olympic hardware? The complete list:
  • ​Sharif Sharifov, AZE - 2012 Olympic gold
  • Hassan Yazdani, IRI - 2016 Olympic gold
  • Yabrail Hasanov, AZE - 2016 Olympic bronze
  • Dato Marsagishvili, GEO - 2012 Olympic bronze
  • Livan Lopez Azcuy, CUB - 2012 Olympic bronze
  • Magomed Kurbanaliev, RUS - 2016 world champ
  • Alireza Karimi, IRI - 2015 world bronze
  • Istvan Vereb, HUN - 2013 world bronze
  • Jake Herbert, USA - 2009 world silver
Those accolades just represent their highest achievement in the sport. Sharifov was also a 2011 world champ and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist. Yazdani was a junior world champ and senior world silver medalist. Marsagishvili has won other medals at both the continental and world level, as has Hasanov. Lopez Azcuy has three world medals to his name, one of which is silver. Kurbanaliev was world bronze medalist the year Taylor pinned him at Beat the Streets. Karimi just won the Asian championship, and Vereb just won a European bronze.

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Taylor has yet to make a senior world team, but it is hard to deny that he does have success when wrestling international opponents. Beyond the nine already mentioned, he also has wins over a junior world champ (Vladislav Valiev), a university world champ (Reza Afzali Paemami), and a military world champ (Uitumen Orgodol).

The list continues from there: Bogdan Hrytsay, a university bronze medalist. Zurabi Erbotsonashvili, a U23 European champ. Chongyao Zhang and Gombodorj Dorjvaanchig, both multiple-time Asian championships medalists. Not to mention Mihaly Nagy and Kakhaber Khubezhty.

While the general public may not all of these names, these are guys who are or were frequently in the world rankings. Taylor will need to knock off one more Olympic medalist in J'Den Cox to make his first world team, which could very well be the main event of next month's World Team Trials.

The four-time NCAA finalist will look to improve his all-time record at Beat the Streets to 4-0 this Wednesday the 17th. The two-time NCAA champ for Penn State has previously beaten Kurbanaliev, Hasanov and Lopez Azcuy at BTS events.

We kick off this year's event in Times Square at 3:30 eastern time, with the main event slated for a 6pm start. Taylor will be the 10th match, so make sure to watch it LIVE on Flo.