Jordan Burroughs is arguably the best wrestler in the world right now. He is the reigning Olympic gold medalist, and just a few weeks back he took on Ben Askren.
Although the match was for charity, Burroughs made it clear he was not making this a competitive match. Rather, he just wanted to show the world just how good he is.
“Going into the match, as soon as the whistle blows, when I step on the mat side, I wanted to win,” Burroughs said on The MMAHour. “Wrestling is different than MMA or boxing or really any other contact sport in that you can’t really draw along an opponent. You watch Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather fight. Floyd can just throw a few punches or he can do a lot of defense, he can slip a few punches, let Conor get a few shots in. You can’t really do that in wrestling without getting scored on or putting yourself at risk.
“So for me, going into that match I was like, listen, I love you Ben, you’ve done a tremendous in the sport of wrestling, you’re doing a tremendous job in MMA, but I’m not letting you score on me.”
Burroughs ended up winning 11-0 and thoroughly dominated Askren from the get-go. Although it was cool to sell out the Hulu Theater, Burroughs did what he came to do.
“The first thing he said when we first came out and shook hands, he was like, Wow, can you believe sold out the Hulu Theater on a Monday night? And I was like, Wow, this is pretty dope. It was kind of that moment where you stop and you reflect. And then two, once I double-legged him for the second time, 9 to 0. He was like, I thought you said you were going to give me a chance. He was like, ‘Listen, let’s entertain the crowd. Don’t just crush me. Let’s put on a show for these people. Let’s let them get their money’s worth.’
“I’m like, ‘I’m not that type of guy.’ … The show is in the point scoring for me. 11-0 is the show, not ‘throw the guy a bone.’”
