Jordan Burroughs and Kyle Dake have quite the history.

Every single one of their matches has been aggressive and physical. However, the last time that they met at the 2017 US Open, Burroughs brought something different to the match. It was a bit of a chippy (that bordered on dirty) demeanor that we've never seen from him in the past.

Afterwards, Dake said in an interview that Burroughs "punched him a lot" during the match.


Everyone who has watched the match has questioned Burroughs' tactics along with asking why the referee didn't take more control or even penalize him for the jabs to Dake's face. During that match, Burroughs covered Dake's eyes repeatedly and was never warned for it despite Dake pleading with the ref and bringing it to his attention whenever possible.



With Dake being the prohibited favorite to win the challenge tournament and meet Burroughs in the best-of-three finals, we can only wonder if Burroughs will have the same approach again. Also, how intentional was it? Was Burroughs trying to send a message or get in Dake's head? That was the only match in which Burroughs deployed this "strategy" in the entire tournament. Even after Kevin LeValley attempted to break his arm, Burroughs still didn't retaliate with anything close to what he did when he wrestled Dake. Should Burroughs choose to implement a similar game plan, will the officials get involved and warn the legend?  Or will JB be able to set the tone for the bout and wrestle just like he did in the Open finals?

Burroughs sits in the finals and will have to beat the challenge tournament winner, which most are predicting will be Dake, twice in a row to make another World Team. Which Burroughs will show up during those matches and will he have the same hands-to-face game plan?