The above photos were taken the same year: 2012. Jordan Burroughs is now 32 and Zahid Valencia is 23. While the paths they have taken to get to this point are similar, they occurred almost a decade apart. When Jordan Burroughs won his first NCAA title, Zahid Valencia was in middle school and barely weighed over 100 lbs.

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Below is a year-by-year timeline of what Jordan Burroughs and Zahid Valencia were doing in their wrestling careers to show how they ended up set to square off in 2020.

2008

Jordan Burroughs came off a third-place finish in what is widely regarded as the hardest NCAA bracket of all time. He moved up to 157 and went through Tyler Safratowich, Jordan Leen, and JP O’Connor to win CKLV and set himself up as the #1 seed at NCAAs.

Zahid Valencia was 11 and weighed 89 lbs. He wrestled Dean Heil in a bout of future two-time NCAA champions at the Tulsa Kickoff Classic.

Watch Zahid Valencia and Dean Heil wrestle at 89 lbs below.

2009

Jordan Burroughs defeated Cyler Sanderson, Gregor Gillespie, and Michael Poeta en route to his first NCAA title.

Zahid Valencia now barely weighed over 100 lbs and won tournaments like the California World Challenge and Poway Elite Challenge.

2010

Jordan Burroughs suffered a torn ACL injury towards the end of 2009 and was forced to sit for the remainder of the 2009-2010 season. However, he received a medical redshirt and came back strong at the beginning of the 2010-2011 season.

Zahid Valencia was still in middle school and only 110 lbs, but starting to make a name for himself. He won the Freak Show, CST 2 California Super Tournament, and the NUWAY World Challenge. He also became the only seventh grader to ever place in the high school division at FloNats.

2011

Jordan Burroughs won his second NCAA title plus the Hodge Trophy after going undefeated. He then immediately went right into the senior level circuit and won the US Open, beat future rival Aniuar Geduev at Beat the Streets, and won the 74 kg World Team spot over Andrew Howe, Kyle Dake, Trent Paulson, Nick Marable, J.P. O’Connor, Moza Fay, and Gregor Gillespie. Very impressive, but he still absolutely shocked the world when he beat Denis Tsargush, Sadegh Goudarzi, and Ashraf Aliyev to win a World gold medal.

Watch Jordan Burroughs win his first World title below.

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Zahid Valencia closed out his middle school career by winning both Cali State in freestyle and Greco. He started his high school career by winning his first Ironman title. At 106 lbs, Zahid beat Matthew Kolodzik and Vincenzo Joseph.

2012

Jordan Burroughs proved that 2011 was no fluke and won a gold medal at the London Olympics. He once again went through Tsargush in the semifinals and Goudarzi in the finals. JB also won the Dave Schultz, Cerro Pelado, the World Cup, and Beat the Streets.

Zahid Valencia became a household name for high school wrestling fans by winning his first Dob Buchanan, California high school state, and Fargo titles.

Watch Zahid Valencia win his first California state title below.

At the beginning of his sophomore year, Zahid bumped up to 113 lbs and won his second-straight Ironman title.

2013

Jordan Burroughs went full alien in 2013. He went undefeated for the third-straight year, beat David Taylor at the US Open, beat Kyle Dake for the World Team spot, and won Worlds on a broken ankle while outsourcing the competition 34-3. GOAT stuff.

Zahid Valencia was still just a 113 lbs sophomore, but he was starting to become one of the best recruits in the country. He won his second-straight Doc Buchanan and took third place at state, getting upset by Sean William in the semifinals. That offseason, Zahid bumped up to 126 for Fargo and defeated Haydin Hidlay in the finals. 

For his sophomore year Zahid moved up even more to 132 lbs. In December of 2013, Zahid won his third-straight Ironman title.

2014

Jordan Burroughs suffered his first international loss in February of 2014 at the Yasar Dogu to Nick Marable, but still made the World Team. After suffering a sprained MCL in the first round of the World Championships, Burroughs lost to Tsargush but still defied all logic and came back to get bronze. 

Watch Jordan Burroughs defeat David Taylor to make the 2014 World Team below.

Zahid Valencia became a household wrestling fan name in 2014, not just a high school scene name. After winning a state title at 132 lbs, he bumped up 50 lbs to 182 and defeated Myles Martin at Who’s #1. Zahid double downed on that victory by winning Super 32 and then beating Myles again to become only the second-ever four-time Ironman champion. David Taylor was the first.

2015

Jordan Burroughs beat Kyle Dake for the third and fourth time in his career to make the 2015 World Team. In September and on US soil in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jordan Burroughs got back on top of the World podium. His biggest win came over Geduev in the semifinals.

Watch Jordan Burroughs take out Kyle Dake to make the 2014 World Team below.

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Zahid Valencia finished his high school career with dominance and arrived on campus in Tempe in 2015. He won his fourth Doc B title, third California state title, and made the UWW Junior World Team. Zahid made his senior-level debut shortly after graduating high school in 2015. In his first-ever senior-level event, Zahid took silver at the Spanish Grand Prix. He then went on to go 3-2 at the Bill Farrell and 2-2 at Senior Nationals.

2016

Jordan Burroughs went undefeated up until the Olympic quarterfinals where he fell to Geduev 3-2.

Zahid Valencia returned to the junior level after finishing his redshirt year. He beat Bo Nickal two matches to none to make the Junior World Team where he took seventh place.

Watch Zahid Valencia beat Bo Nickal in the Junior World Team Trials finals below.

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Zahid Valencia started his college career by going undefeated and winning Daktronics, Journeymen Classic, CKLV, and Midlands.

2017

Jordan Burroughs showed how tough he is in 2017. After dropping match one in the World Team Trials finals to Kyle Dake, he came back to win the next two and make his seventh-straight World/Olympic Team. He also got back on the horse at Worlds beating Russia’s Khetag Tsabolov for gold.

Zahid Valencia took third at NCAAs after losing to Mark Hall in the semifinals. Post folkstyle season Zahid made his third-straight Junior World Team, this time taking home silver. The beginning of his sophomore year at ASU went similar to year one with CKLV and Midlands titles.

2018

Jordan Burroughs once again made the World Team, this time defeating Isaiah Martinez at Final X. After he lost to Zaurbek Sidakov in the quarterfinals, Burroughs came back to beat Frank Chamizo for bronze.

Zahid Valencia won his first NCAA title in 2018 and made it to Final X by beating Alex Dieringer two matches to none. However, Zahid was bested by Kyle Dake at Final X.

Watch Zahid Valencia win the 2018 NCAA title over Mark Hall below.

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2019

Jordan Burroughs once again earned the 74 kg World Team spot over Isaiah Martinez in 2019, but lost to Sidakov at Worlds.

Zahid Valencia won his second-straight NCAA title over Mark Hall. This year, however, Ringer beat Zahid to get the opportunity to see Kyle Dake in Final X.

2020

Jordan Burroughs brings home gold at the Pan Am Championships over Franklin Gomez.

Zahid Valencia went 20-0 his final NCAA season and won the Matteo Pellicone, beating Alex Dieringer in the finals.

Two incredibly different timelines have led to this. Two of America’s best wrestlers facing off on November 14th in Austin, Texas.