In less than a fortnight, David Taylor will be marking his return to the mat as he takes on Myles Martin in an exhibition match on July 25 in Austin, Texas. The match will be amongst the many others which will take place on Sunday night including the class of champions between Frank Chamizo and Kyle Dake. The event is being organised by FloWrestling and will be aired by it on its youtube channel and website.
Myles Martin was one of the best to ever do it for the Ohio State Buckeyes. The four-time All-American captured a national title as a freshman at the 2016, made the finals once again in 2018 and finished his college career at 121-19.
Now, Martin will be back in action. He finished off his four years after the 2018-19 season and was gearing up for international competition and an Olympic bid, until those plans were put on hold until 2021, when the Tokyo Summer Olympics are expected to take place.
On July 25th, Martin will take the mat in a Flo Wrestling event featuring a lot of high profile wrestlers in what looks like a stacked UFC fight card.
Martin will take on former Penn State two-time national champion and four-time All-American David Taylor in the co-main event. The two will wrestle in a freestyle match.
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Martin replaces Team USA member Pat Downey on the card, who was supposed to wrestle Taylor in a much-anticipated bout because the two did not officially square off for the Team USA spot at 86 KG for the World Championships in 2019. Downey versus Taylor was supposed to take place at the Final X event in June 2019 (which determines the No. 1 spot at a specific weight on the freestyle team). With an injury to Taylor, Downey took the spot.
Since Downey was dropped from the card, seemingly due to off the mat concerns and his release from the New Jersey Regional Training Center, the former Buckeye gives the wrestling world a dream Ohio State-Penn State match up.
Taylor is currently 105-15 in his freestyle career and is one of the most decorated wrestlers in the United States. Taylor was a gold medalist at the 2018 World Championships and also captured gold at the 2018 and ‘19 Pan Am Championships. 2018 was also the year Taylor captured a gold medal at the elite Golden Grand Prix Ivan Yarygin tournament.
Nine of the 15 losses on Taylor’s resume are t renowned champions Jordan Burroughs, Kyle Dake and J’Den Cox. Burroughs is the 2012 Olympic gold medalist and one of the greatest wrestlers in American history. Dake is a four-time NCAA champion in four different weight classes (Cornell) and one of Taylor’s closest friends and biggest rivals. Dake is also a two-time gold medalist at the World Championships. Cox was a three-time NCAA champion at Missouri, a bronze medalist at the 2016 Olympic games and a two-time gold medalist at the World Championships.
Martin is relatively new to the freestyle circuit, joining the Ohio Regional Training Center in 2019. The international resumes are in favor of Taylor, but Martin had some success and a rivalry with another Penn State wrestler, Bo Nickal, who was a three time NCAA champion and four time finalist (the lone loss coming to Martin in 2016).
The July 25th card presented by Flo Wrestling will be highlighted with a main event of Dake versus Italian superstar Frank Chamizo, another top wrestler in the world. Martin and Taylor will slide in as the co-main event. Matches prior to the top two include Luke Pletcher (former Ohio State All-American) versus Darion Caldwell (former NC State national champion and current MMA fighter in Bellator), Jack Mueller (former All-American from Virginia) versus Roman Bravo-Young (current Penn State All-American) and Vito Arujau (current Cornell All-American) versus Sammy Alvarez (current Rutgers All-American).
