Taylor and Yazdani, Yazdani and Taylor

David Taylor (@magicman_psu) and Hassan Yazdani (@hasan_yazdani73) first wrestled against each other at the men’s freestyle world cup in Kermanshah, Iran, on February 17, 2017.

Both had bumped up to 86kg from 74kg, Taylor before the Rio Olympics (he didn’t qualify for the games) and Yazdani after winning the gold medal there. The matchup was the most anticipated of the event.

Podium photos: 2022, (l.) and 2023, nearly identical, one year apart, both in Belgrade, Serbia.

Since then, Taylor has won three world championships and an Olympic gold medal; Yazdani has won three world championships and an Olympic silver medal. No one else has won the weight class since they entered it and neither has lost a match to anyone else in international competition.

Yazdani turned the tables for his only career victory over Taylor at the 2021 World Championships in Oslo, Norway, less than two months after losing for the third time at the Toyko Olympics.

They’ve wrestled five more times at the world championships and the Olympic Games, the most recent last night in the finals of the world championships here in Belgrade, Serbia.

A pause during their second match, the only time they’ve wrestled at a world championship and it wasn’t the finals. They were randomly drawn into the bracket and faced each other in the first round at the 2018 event in Budapest, Hungary.

Their journeys are tied together, a binary star system in a gravitational orbit, bound to and circling the other.

Immediately after the final whistle, ending their 2023 match.

Round and round they go, nearly as one.

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Editor’s Note: With David Taylor’s announced hiring on May 6, 2024 as the head coach of Oklahoma State University’s wrestling team, it appears this was their final meeting.

Their sixth face-off at the 2023 World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.