Final X Preview: Epic Showdown – World champ Cox vs Hodge winner Nickal

This could be among the biggest and best of the 13 matches that will be held at Final X Rutgers that will eventually send 30 USA wrestlers in all three styles to the 2019 UWW World Championships, Sept. 14-22, in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. There will also be a Final X, June 15, in Lincoln, Neb., where 15 other best-of-3 battles will also take place. (Pat Downey earned a spot on the 2019 World team at 86 kilos when World champ David Taylor was forced to withdraw because of an injury. There will also be a later special wrestle-off between Alex Dieringer and World champ Kyle Dake, who asked for a Final X postponement because of an injury.)

Here is a preview of a Best-of-3 men’s freestyle meeting between Nickal and Cox as well as a preview of a women’s freestyle bout between Forrest Molinari and Maya Nelson at 65 kilos and Kamal Bey and Pat Smith in Greco at 92 kilos.  Matches will start at either 12 noon or 6 p.m. EDT at the Rutgers Athletic Center this Saturday in Piscataway, N.J.

MFS-92k/202lb            J’den Cox vs. Bo Nickal

When Cox, a former three-time NCAA champion from Missouri, qualified for the 2016 Olympics, some considered that a surprise considering he had never wrestled internationally in freestyle. But the 24-year-old native of Columbia, Mo., not only earned a bronze medal in Rio at 86 kilograms three years ago, but also added a World bronze medal in 2017 (also at 86k) and a World championship at 92 kilos last October in Paris. That World medal also earned Cox an automatic spot at Final X Rutgers.

Nickal, who went 30-0 with 18 pins on college mats this past winter at 197 pounds (after also winning two NCAA titles at 184), continued his domination at the U.S. Open this past April in Las Vegas and the World Team Trials Challenge tournament last month in Raleigh, N.C., where the 23-year-old native of Allen, Texas, shut out Michael Macchiavello, 10-0 and 5-0, to earn a trip to Final X Rutgers.

Cox warmed up for Final X when he dominated at the Beat the Streets and Pan-American Championships in May. Nickal, meanwhile, had some World-level experiences as he finished fifth in the 2013 Cadet World at 76 kilograms.

GR-77k/169lb            Kamal Bey vs. Pat Smith

Both of these Greco-Roman wrestlers have represented the United States at past World Championships, but Bey earned the automatic berth in Final X, when he defeated Smith, 7-5, at the U.S. Open in Las Vegas in April.

Bey, a 21-year-old native of Bellwood, Ill., wrestled in both the Junior and Senior World Championships last year at 77 kilos; claiming fifth and seventh place, respectively. This came after Bey also won a Junior World championship at 74 kilos in 2017, the same year he represented the USA at the U23 World Championships at 80k. Bey also competed in the 2016 Junior Worlds, where he finished eighth.

Smith earned a Final X rematch with Bey after the 28-year-old native of Chaska, Minn., won two straight matches over 2017 World teammate Mason Manville (75k) at the World Team Trials Challenge tournament last month at N.C. State. In the past, Smith finished second at the 2016 Olympic Trials to ReVaughn Perkins at 66 kilograms, but came back to wrestle in the 2017 World Championships where he split two bouts at 71 kilos.

WFS-65k/143.5lb             Forrest Molinari vs. Maya Nelson  

A 5-1 victory by Molinari over Nelson in the finals of April’s U.S. Open in Las Vegas gave Molinari the automatic spot in Final X Rutgers, while Nelson earned her spot in Piscataway when she dominated Macey Kilty, 5-0 and 11-3, at the World Team Trials Challenge tournament in Raleigh, N.C.

This marks the second straight year that Molinari, a 23-year-old native of Benicia, Calif., has competed in Final X. Last summer, she won a pair of bouts over Julia Salata that sent her to the World Championships in Paris, where Molinari finished fifth. She split four matches at the 2018 Worlds, which included a victory over Russia’s Maria Kuznetsova, but lost a bronze-medal match to Irina Netreba of Azerbaijan.

Molinari, who trains with the Hawkeye Wrestling Club in Iowa City after winning a 2016 WCWA title for King University, has competed in four World championships in her life. That included a pair of visits to the U23 Worlds in 2017 and ’18 (finishing seventh last year) and a seventh-place finish at the 2015 Junior World Championships.

Nelson, a 21-year-old native of Denver, Colo., has also competed in three age-group World championships, highlighted by a World title in 2017. She also wrestled in the U23 Worlds that autumn and also collected a Junior World bronze medal in 2016.

WIN magazine will provide comprehensive coverage of both Final X events. To get a Subscription to WIN’s Monthly Print or Digital Magazine so you get the Final X coverage, click here.

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