Dake vs. Taylor

[ThorsteinV 83]

Who would’ve won this weekend in a fantasy match? 

[WJB 7]

Easy answer! The same one who has won 100% of their matches they have wrestled as adults. 

[D White 13]

I am as big a Taylor fan as you will find and have been for years but Dake is the best pound for pound wrestler in the world right now and is Taylor's kryptonite.

 

[Drew87 349]

This is a great question. When you look at their matches and any footage of them wrestling in practice, dake always looks two steps ahead. As other’s have said, taylor is really good at what he does, and may be the best in his weight if be can get his movement back, but kyle dake is stingy, explosive, extremely technical, and overall an absolute assassin.  He seemingly has no ‘personality’ to his wrestling outside technical excellence, very precise strategy, and physical dominance. Beating JB was impressive, but I find what he did to Nolf even more impressive. 

For what it’s worth, a common opponent in gabe dean, in that taylor and dean have wrestled a bunch together, and dean is dake’s go to practice guy.  Taylor always wrestles him close, and anecdotally from the wrestle-sphere, dake absolutely ragdolls gabe.

No, wrestling math does t work that way, but just wanted to offer that for a little depth to the discussion.

[iha 18]

Apparently the last time they wrestled, which was at 86kg at the 2016 Trials Dake was dealing with multiple tears in his left arm (rotator cuff, labrum and bicep) and had to have surgery afterward. So it seems that Dake beat Taylor at a higher weight for which he is undersized despite a pretty bad left arm injury. Given how close he came to qualifying at 86kg in 2016, that is kind of nuts. 

[Weems 47]

What if everything repeats forever and Dake has already beaten Taylor infinite times and will beat him again in another infinity of matches

[Mokoma 326]

8 hours ago, WJB said:

Easy answer! The same one who has won 100% of their matches they have wrestled as adults. 

So I guess Burroughs beat Dake too right?

[treep2000 1,152]

People put too much stock on historical matchups that happened years prior (keyword, years).  A lot of time has passed and things change.  I think a DT / Dake matchup will be razor thin, with either winning, based on the present.   

[Alyosha 48]

In an actual match, I think Dake would’ve won. He looked the best he’s ever looked, and Taylor did not look 100% (wrestling fairly conservatively).

 

However the OP asked about a fantasy match, which is a whole different story. There I’ve got to pick Taylor based on his undefeated record in their prior fantasy matches.

[dman115 545]

I think Dake wins...because Taylor has never proven otherwise.  How does one NOT take history into consideration...that is obviously the best evidence for one to use when forming an opinion is it not??

[scribe 1,845]

Taylor is undefeated in fantasy matchups. 

[headshuck 2,626]

Every time he loses a fantasy match, his ears grow a millimeter.

[ionel 2,729]

23 minutes ago, scribe said:

Taylor is undefeated in fantasy matchups. 

Is this a fantasy post?  Didn't know the scribe was still in the 'real world!'  :)

[D White 13]

4 hours ago, scribe said:

Taylor is undefeated in fantasy matchups. 

This is actually not true anymore.  I saw more people picking Bo going into Saturday nights matches.  We can now scratch that off the list along with never making an Olympic team.

[boconnell 1,632]

7 hours ago, Mokoma said:

So I guess Burroughs beat Dake too right?

Your point is a good one, but Burroughs didn't win all of the previous matchups with Dake.  

[lu_alum 923]

4 hours ago, ionel said:

Is this a fantasy post?  Didn't know the scribe was still in the 'real world!'  :)

OP said "fantasy match". That suggests DT.

Reality has proven Dake to be undefeated against all things Nittany.

[ionel 2,729]

4 minutes ago, lu_alum said:

OP said "fantasy match". That suggests DT.

Reality has proven Dake to be undefeated against all things Nittany.

[Katie 1,076]

16 hours ago, D White said:

I am as big a Taylor fan as you will find and have been for years but Dake is the best pound for pound wrestler in the world right now and is Taylor's kryptonite.

 

 Best pound-for-pound wrestler in the world?! What?!

Edited April 5, 2021 by Katie

[WJB 7]

Bottom line - DT is not as good as Dake and has not been since they both entered college. I would assume by now DT knows and accepts that , so now it is probably time the "Fantasy Match" people accept it as well. The good news for DT is that Dake decided to go down to take out one of USA's best ever and not up ( to ruin DT's world like he did in college), so DT no longer has to worry about Dake......at least for now. 

[ShakaAloha 430]

16 hours ago, D White said:

I am as big a Taylor fan as you will find and have been for years but Dake is the best pound for pound wrestler in the world right now and is Taylor's kryptonite.

 

Sadulaev and his Olympic gold and 4 world championship golds say hi

[Sublime607 145]

2 hours ago, boconnell said:

Your point is a good one, but Burroughs didn't win all of the previous matchups with Dake.  

That was actually very kind of you. When I read his post I thought for sure he was going to get blasted with facts.

[boconnell 1,632]

Just now, Sublime607 said:

That was actually very kind of you. When I read his post I thought for sure he was going to get blasted with facts.

Part of me wanted to jump on him for being wrong on the facts.  But I had to admit that the facts don't make his overall point wrong.  Just because Burroughs beat Dake almost all of the previous matchups, it doesn't mean he does now.  Same with Dake and Taylor.  He made a smart comparison with bad facts.

With that said, I'd still go Dake over Taylor.  I think the history is applicable and I think Dake is better than he's ever been before.  

[boconnell 1,632]

1 hour ago, ShakaAloha said:

Sadulaev and his Olympic gold and 4 world championship golds say hi

Sadulaev is awesome.  But after getting beat by Snyder nobody had him as undisputed p4p #1.  Then he beat Snyder and everyone did have him there.  But now it looks like his win over Snyder might not be as impressive as we assumed it was.  I could see arguments against Sadulaev.  I dont' think they're as strong as the arguments for him, but I get the argument.  

[wrestlingnerd 3,011]

Switching topics, since we’re wild ass speculating and this thread deserves a good hijack, did anyone think DT looked injured? I think the knee didn’t recover well or he’s nursing something. 

[ionel 2,729]

1 minute ago, wrestlingnerd said:

Switching topics, since we’re wild ass speculating and this thread deserves a good hijack, did anyone think DT looked injured? I think the knee didn’t recover well or he’s nursing something. 

I heard he was still recovering from a butt injury from the last time Bo beat him in the practice room.