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.