J'den Cox celebrating his win in the men's 92 kg. gold-medal match at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships on Sept. 21, 2019 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
For the second straight year, J’den Cox is a world champion.
Cox defeated Iran’s Alireza Karimi Machiani 4-0 in the 92 kg. gold-medal match in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Cox has won either a world championship or Olympic medal. In addition to his back-to-back world titles, he also took bronze at the world championships in 2017 and at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
Cox and Karimi Machiani faced each other in the semifinals of the world championships last year, with Cox prevailing in that matchup as well, 5-2. Cox also eliminated Karimi Machiani at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 en route to winning the bronze medal.
On Saturday, Cox got the early jump on the two-time world bronze medalist with a takedown and then executed another just before the break to take a 4-0 lead. The second period went by without a single point as Cox continued his shutdown mastery at these world championships.
The 24-year-old from Columbia, Missouri, easily won his first two matches on Friday morning, beating Mohammed Fardj of Algeria with an 11-0 technical fall and then defeating Nurgali Nurgaipuly of Kazakhstan, 8-0. He then beat Irakli Mtsituri of Georgia, 3-0, in the semifinals, scoring all his points in the first period in that match as well, to earn the chance to defend his title.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.