Dake beats Dzhioev 3-2 for 86kg gold, fifth World title
At 35, Dake is the oldest American man to win a freestyle World title.
Kyle Dake won World gold at 86kg in Astana, beating Azerbaijan's Arsenii Dzhioev 3-2 in the final. Dzhioev was the No. 1 seed, and Dake went 6-0 on the week to get to him. It is Dake's fifth World title and his first at 86kg.
The weight class list is the part that will get argued about all winter. Dake has now won World golds at 74kg, 79kg and 86kg, which, per @justinjbasch, puts him in company with Abdulrashid Sadulaev as a World champion at three different weights. Basch's count on the rest of the hardware is two at 79kg and two at 74kg, with the titles coming in 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022 and now 2026.
The age record
Dake is 35, and both @justinjbasch and @flowrestling noted that the win makes him the oldest American man to win a freestyle World title. Four of his five golds came in a five year stretch from 2018 to 2022. The fifth came four years after the fourth, at a weight two classes above where he started winning them.
Basch put the obvious question on the table right after the final.
Another one for the American men
Dake's gold lands in the same Astana week that produced Kyle Snyder's 97kg title for the US men's freestyle team. Nobody has said what comes next for Dake, whether this is a one off at 86kg or where he intends to compete from here.
What to watch for is simple. Whether Dake stays at 86kg after winning there on his first try, and whether he says anything about his plans beyond Astana.
Is it time to start putting Kyle Dake in the GOAT Category?
He joins Abdulrashid Sadulaev in very rare company as a World champion at three weights.
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