J’den Cox to wrestle for Bronze in Rio

After an arduous week and half of hard fought competition in Rio, American wrestler J’Den Cox earned a bronze medal in the Olympics on Saturday, though it came in perhaps one of the oddest endings yet in this global competition.

Cox defeated Reineris Salas Perez of Cuba on Saturday in the Rio Olympics third-place match for the 86 kg weight class. Officially, it goes in the books for Cox as victory by withdrawal, and regardless, he gets to take a bronze medal back to the University of Missouri, where he will be a senior this fall. With only six seconds left in the match and Cox leading, Salas Perez refused to return to the mat, even at the behest of his coach. About a minute later, Cox was put on a shot clock, and worked furiously to take Salas Perez down. Cox’s medal now gives the United States 110 for the competition.

On Saturday, Cox’s first match was against Amarhajy Mahamedau of Belarus.

In the quarterfinals, Cox matched up with 2015 World bronze medalist Alireza Mohammed Karimimachiani (Iran), a rematch from the UWW Men’s Freestyle World Cup in Los Angeles on June 12 where Cox defeated the Iranian, 6-2. Earlier in the day, Cox lost in the semifinal to Selim Yasar. “If I score more points, I win the match”. Cox scored on a push out point to knot the score, 1-1, in the second, but Yasar still had the criteria advantage due to the penalty point given to Cox in the first period. The Cuban wrestler was disqualified, and the 21-year-old Cox had bronze in his first Olympics. He chose to cut weight to compete down at 86kg at trials, where he upset top-seed Jake Herbert en route to winning the tournament.