Jordan Burroughs Breaks John Smith’s Record of Six World/Olympic Wrestling Championships

Oklahoma State head wrestling coach John Smith has widely been regarded as the greatest American wrestler in the history of the sport. His six-straight World/Olympic titles are a streak that has never, and likely will never, be matched again.

But there will now be some debate over who should be considered the GOAT as Jordan Burroughs became the “most decorated American wrestler of all-time,” winning his seventh Olympic/World title, one more than Coach Smith.

Jordan Burroughs is now the most decorated American wrestler of all-time https://t.co/2srUtBab2I

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) September 16, 2022

The entire body of work put together by Burroughs in some eyes puts him ahead of Coach Smith. The counter to that is John Smith retired from competition at the age of 27 to take over coaching at Oklahoma State after NCAA violations lead to the removal of Joe Seay. So it’s a bit of an unknown as to what Smith could have done by 34 (Jordan Burroughs’ current age).

Somewhat comparable to the Michael Jordan/LeBron James discussion, this is a debate that will likely rage for some time.

All right. I’ll start the discussion everyone in the wrestling world will inevitably be having moving forward until the next great comes along.
John Smith from 1987-1992:
🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇
Jordan Burroughs from 2011-2022:
🥇🥇🥇🥉🥇-🥇🥉🥉-🥇🥇
Who’s the 🐐?

— Seth Duckworth (@Seth_Duckworth) September 16, 2022

OSU Athletics posted Smith’s congratulations to Burroughs on its social media pages after his win Friday.

Nothing but respect from one legend to another 🤝🇺🇸#DynastyDefined I @alliseeisgold pic.twitter.com/rGU9NXqCV4

— OSU Cowboy Wrestling (@CowboyWrestling) September 16, 2022