Jordan Burroughs shares "beautiful" reason behind why 79kg category is easy

Jordan Burroughs called the '79 kg' category the easiest since he didn't have to cut weight or face any difficulties ahead of the competitions. Burroughs will take the World Championships stage on October 30, 2024. vying for his third 79kg global win and the seventh overall title.

In 2023, Burroughs was denied his first US World Team since 2011, after losing to Chance Marsteller at Final X: New York. He persevered and returned stronger in 2024 and won the Yasar Dogu International in his first appearance of the year.

Going into the US Olympic Team Trials, he trounced Alex Facundo (Pan American champion) and Mitchell Mesenbrink (U20 World champion) to advance to the finals. However, he was edged out by three-time NCAA champion Jason Nolf, thus crushing his dream of another Olympic title since the London Olympics.

Following the US trials' heartbreak, the three-time Pan American Games gold medalist stepped into the World Championships run, vying for his seventh overall title and third in the 79 kg category. In the sixth episode of Inside a Dream, uncut with JB, the 38-year-old spilled the 'absolute truth' that he never had to cut down weight to compete in the 79 kg.

"79 is easy don't have to cut any weight. This is absolute truth I haven't stepped on the scale since day two weins in Omaha and I just know I'm never more than seven or eight pounds over and it's a beautiful thing."

Jordan Burroughs clinched the World title in the 79 kg in 2021 and 2022. In the 2024 edition, Burroughs will first compete in the Freestyle qualification round and the semi-finals on October 30, 2024. The repechage round and the Freestyle finals are scheduled for October 31, 2024.

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Jordan Burroughs felt his career would end after being unable to qualify for the Paris Olympic roster

Jordan Burroughs looking on at the 'Beat the Street' Gala Wrestling tournament. Grand Central Station New York - (Source: Getty)

In a conversation with FloWrestling, the New Jersey-born expressed disappointment over his inability to make the 2023 World Team and 2024 Olympic Team, thinking that his wrestling career was nearing its end.

"After the World championships and the Olympic Games, nothing else really matters for us. So, going back to back years 23 and 24 not making a team, it just kind of jaded me a little bit in regards to where I was as a sportsman. But, you know, was I seeing the end of my career in real-time? So, a lot of the things that I felt was a lot of me just projecting my own insecurity of where I was right. I'm like, ‘Man, is it over?’"

Jordan Burroughs also won bronze medals in the 74 kg category at the 2014, 2018, and 2019 editions of the World Championships.