Streaks are hard to come by in wrestling. This year we had a few guys that were eligible for the Hodge Trophy, but for the most part, everyone takes losses. When you start talking about senior-level competition, winning streaks become even rarer. That's one of the things that made the wrestling community fall in love with Jordan Burroughs and Abdulrashid Sadulaev. 

Sadulaev's streak, while extending a longer period of time, is still not as long as Jordan's and upon a closer look, is almost inarguably inferior in terms of quality of competition.  One notch in Sadulaev's belt is his dominant margin of victory.  Take a look at the length of the streaks, the hammers each have beaten and how dominant each were throughout.  

These two are the standard-bearers in freestyle wrestling. Let's take a look at two of the more impressive streaks to occur in freestyle in recent history. 

Abdulrashid Sadulaev

Winning Streak: 65 matches (And counting)
3x World/Olympic Champion
Winning Streak: 3 years, 6 months, 6 days
Senior-Level Record: 66-1

During the Streak

3 World Medals (3 Gold)
65 matches 
Falls - 2
Techs - 34
Decisions - 29

Sadulaev lost his first match a senior level to a guy who only wrestled for a world medal once in 2014. There were a couple of things that you might need to take into consideration with this match though. First, it was his first match at a senior level and he looked almost star struck. Second, the match took place in the round of 16 at the 2013 Golden Grand Prix in Azerbaijan, and it was a brief period of time when tech falls could be awarded by throwing someone for five. 



After that loss, Sadulaev has been mowing over opponents in an impressive fashion. One of the most impressive stats is that in the 68 matches at a senior level, he has only been scored on 18 times. 

Jordan Burroughs

Winning Streak: 69
4x World/Olympic Champion
Winning Streak:  2 years, 6 months, 23 days
Senior-Level Record: 134-4

During the Streak

3 World Medals (3 Gold Medals)
Falls - 2 
Techs - 12
Decisions - 53
Inj Def - 1
DQ - 1

Burroughs' streak came to an end when he wrestled none other than Nick Marable at the 2014 Yasar Dogu in Turkey. Burroughs does hold the longer streak as of right now, but Sadulaev has spanned a longer period of time. As you can see from the numbers Sadulaev has far more wins by tech fall then Burroughs, but what is interesting to me is the number of world medalists that Burroughs beat during his streak. Burroughs went through 33 world medals, while Sadulaev went through 22 medals.  Jordan beat FIVE different wrestlers with FOUR World/Olympic medals.  

When we compared Burroughs and Sadulaev's streaks we talked mostly about the the length of the streak and how they were started and, in Burroughs' case stopped. This time we are going to take a look at the strength of opponent that both athletes faced during their streak.

World medals were the only factors that we took into account (using continental placement would be difficult considering the inequality of the continental championship tournaments).

Each medal was weighted, Gold Medals = 3, Silver Medals = 2, and Bronze Medals = 1. Here's how they stack up.

Abdulrashid Sadulaev

NAME	TOTAL MEDALS	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE
Dato Marsagishvili	2			2
Murad Gaidarov	1		1
Selim Yasar	3		2	1
Mihail Ganev	1	1
Reineris Salas	3		2	1
Mihail Ganev	1	1
Alireza Karimi	1			1
Selim Yasar	3		2	1
Sharif Sharifov	4	2		2
Selim Yasar	3		2	1
TOTAL	22	4	9	9

Power Points: Gold 12, Silver 18, Bronze 9 

Sadulaev Strength Of Schedule: 39

Jordan Burroughs

NAME	TOTAL MEDALS	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE
Aniuar Geduev (Russia)	2		1	1
Denis Tsargush (Russia)	4	3		1
Sadegh Goudarzi (Iran)	4		3	1
Sohsuke Takatani (Japan)	1		1
Sadegh Goudarzi (Iran)	4		3	1
Denis Tsargush (Russia)	4	3		1
Sadegh Goudarzi (Iran)	4		3	1
Sohsuke Takatani (Japan)	1		1
Ezzatollah Akbarizarinkolaei (Iran)	1		1
Ali Shabanau (Belarus)	2			2
Narsingh Yadav (India)	1			1
Ali Shabanau (Belarus)	2			2
Ezzatollah Akbarizarinkolaei (Iran)	1		1
Rashid Kurbanov (Uzbekistan)	1			1
Unurbat Purevjav (Mongolia)	1		1
TOTAL	33	6	15	12

Power Points: Gold 18, Silver, 30, Bronze 12

Burroughs Strength Of Schedule: 60

As you can see the when the power points add up Burrough's opponent's scored far more in our power point system then Sadulaev's did. Sadulaev recently announced that he would be competing this year up at 97kg. Sadulaev has the opportunity to pass Jordan's streak, but it is important to note that at this point, JB's run from 2011-2014 was better.