J’den Cox Finishes as World Runner-Up

J’den Cox made the world finals for the third time in his career but fell to Iran’s Kamran Ghasempour 2-0 in the finals. In his first three matches J’den was dominant, outscoring his opponents 28-0, including two techs. He started with an 10-0 win over Bi Yuxiang of China followed by an 11-0 win over Radoslaw Marcinkiewicz of Poland. His semifinals opponent Osman Nurmagomedov of Azerbaijan was a world bronze medalist and U23 champ and J’den defeated him 7-0.

Last year Ghasempour defeated J’den in the semifinals 3-3 on criteria and went on to win the title. In the finals this year Ghasempour scored an early takedown after going on the activity clock and his defense and positioning throughout the match was too much for J’den to get through. J’den has now won two golds, three bronze, and one silver World/Olympic medals.