Contrary to the so-called expert opinions of various online media hacks, Bo Nickal can absolutely beat J'den Cox at Final X. 

I do not say this to curry favor with the Nittany Lion wrestling fans, of which there are legion. I don't say this to make a trendy, contrarian pick, or because I have a particular affinity for Nickal and his last name which is good for making Nickleback puns. 

I say it because it is true. 

Watch Final X - Rutgers LIVE on FloWrestling

June 8 | 12:00 PM & 6 PM ET

Make no mistake, J'den Cox is going to be the favorite when that first whistle of the series sounds off inside the Rutgers Athletic Center. And rightfully so. Hopefully, you don't need to be reminded of the fact that J'den Cox is the reigning world champion, but if that is the unfortunate case, please allow me to direct your attention to the video below, which will show the 92 kg men's freestyle gold medal match at the 2019 UWW World Championships in Budapest, which Cox won.

Cox is a phenomenon, with extraordinary wrestling talent, honed by countless hours of dedicated training and practice. Just about everything Nomad says about Cox and his exception wrestling skills is 100% true. Except for the one part where he says Bo Nickal has a 0% chance of beating him. 

It is foolish, in the opinion of your humble correspondent, to count out Bo Nickal before he wrestles any match. Indeed, I know from experience. I made that very same foolish mistake in the finals of the 2017 NCAA Championships. I assumed that there was no way Bo Nickal could beat Cornell's Gabe Dean. Let's all bear witness how spectacularly wrong I was about that by watching a highlight of that match. 

Unlock this video, live events, and more with a subscription!

Sign Up

Already a subscriber? Log In

Now, in my defense, Bo has not yet become the current version of Bo. It was his sophomore year, so and he had just lost in the Big Ten semifinals to Myles Martin. On the other hand, Gabe Dean was undefeated and wrestling for his third consecutive NCAA title as well as a Hodge Trophy. Nickal dashed those threepeat and Hodge hopes. Nickal then proceeded to snap off two consecutive undefeated seasons to amass one of the best college careers of all time. Bo also snagged himself a coveted Hodge Trophy just a few months ago. 

I was also guilty of committing the common and lamentable error of judging a book by its cover, or as the metaphor pertains in this case, judging a wrestler's talent by physique alone. Not that Gabe Dean is not an exceptional wrestler in his own right (I mean duh, his NCAA finishes are 3, 1, 1, 2), only that visually, Bo vs Gabe appears to be a mismatch. 

Following that match, I swore off counting Bo Nickal out of any wrestling match. A decision which I am happy to report has yet to betray me. Nickal did lose twice in the next tournament the entered, which was the 2017 U.S. Open where he finished fourth, losing to Rich Perry and Nick Heflin in the process. But it's not like he had no chance of winning either of those bouts.

That Open was the last time we've seen Bo Nickal taste defeat, in free or folkstyle. And while I will admit that Nickal's freestyle credentials are rather skimpy compared to Cox's prodigious resume, I will retort with our sport's dustiest adage, 'wrestling is wrestling', coupled an equally trite cribbed slogan, 'Bo knows wrestling.'

To further my last point, I yield the floor to the consummate Mike Mal.

Watch enough Bo Nickal matches, and you will see plenty of additional examples of this jaw-dropping martial sorcery. 

Besides Bo's penchant for winning and prowess for tactical ingenuity, there are a couple other things working in his favor. For one, although a fellow American knocking off a reigning gold medalist is as rare as Nomad mentioned in his initial article, there are also plenty of instances of American wrestlers wrapping up a college career and immediately become a dominant force in freestyle.

Jordan Burroughs is the prototype for this development curve, but the same general pattern was followed by many other recent world team members, including Nick Gwiazdowksi and James Green. It could be argued that it is so rare to see American gold medalists taking domestic losses because American gold medalists themselves are so rare. 

Additionally, for as dominant as J'den Cox has been domestically, he has not been invincible. He dropped a match to Kyle Dake in the 2016 Olympic Team Trials and one to David Taylor 2017 World Team Trials. Cox has also produced some head-scratching loses internationally, most notably to the otherwise unimposing Boris Makojev in the 2017 World Championships. 

I will conclude my rebuttal with one final hedge; a total cheat perhaps in the eyes of some. I am not, as Nomad is, planting my flag with either wrestler. And, as I previously mentioned, I consider Cox the favorite. I don't take the position that Nickal will win, I merely take umbrage with the notion that Nickal cannot win. 

So I've set things up so that I cannot lose. If Cox wins, it will not be unexpected, and I will be happy to see an American world champion back in the lineup. Likewise, I will not be shocked if Nickal pulls of the upset and makes his first world team. For myself and all other nonpartisans, this best-of-three series is a true win-win.

In any event, I look forward to tuning in June 8th at 6:00 pm eastern to find out if Nomad is right. Even though I've already proven him to be at least partially wrong.