For the past few weeks, plenty of wrestling fans have looked forward to the possibility of Penn State legend Carter Starocci competing against Olympic legend Jordan Burroughs.
Those fans won’t get their wishes.
On Monday afternoon, four days before the U.S. Olympic Trials are scheduled to begin at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center, the brackets came out. Starocci, who was expected to compete at 74KG, will instead be doing so at 86KG.
This would eliminate the possibility of him going against Burroughs, a two-time national champion at Nebraska who has gone on to be a six-time world champion and 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist in Freestyle. Burroughs won his Gold Medal and four of his world championships at 74 KG. Late last month, Starocci wrote to X (formerly Twitter) that he’d end Burroughs’ career at the trials.
Now, the two won’t be facing each other, but Burroughs added to the beef on Instagram by writing:
“Gonna be hard to end my career there champ.”
CARTER STAROCCI-JORDAN BURROUGHS: THE BACKSTORY
Burroughs has exchanged words with another Penn State wrestling legend, with Starocci being at the center of the discussion.
During the NCAA Championships, Burroughs suggested that guys going against Starocci would be wise to target his injury.
Bo Nickal didn’t like that too much.
Really classy Jordan Burroughs as commentator saying you’d target Starocci’s injury in competition,” Nickal posted to X, formerly Twitter. “Sad that you think that way and even if you do you should keep it to yourself it’s unprofessional. For all your accomplishments I’d expect more.”
Burroughs had a response:
“You punch guys in the face for a living,” he said. “Shut up.”
Nickal punched back.“You should stick to wrestling not commentating because you can’t stop talking about yourself,” he wrote.
Burroughs didn’t have a response for that.
As it turned out, Nickal wasn’t done.
“Again, it’s not his (Burroughs’s) moment,” Nickal said on the “Baschamania Podcast” hosted by Justin Basch. “So, why take a guy’s fourth national title, and one of the biggest moments of his career, and make it about yourself? To me, that just shows his character, and the thing that bothers me is that nobody sees this. You know, he always tries to act like an ambassador of the sport… bro, you’re a freakin’ fraud. You just want to make it about yourself.
“So, relax, don’t come at our guys and don’t act friendly to me when I see you… I don’t really care to be cool with you.”
Starocci quoted the video of Nickal’s podcast comments, writing that he’d end Burroughs’ career “in three weeks.”
Now, the trials are less than four days away and Starocci, seeded No. 6 at 86KG, will be going against No. 11 Patrick Downey, who won a national title at 197 pounds for Iowa State in 2015.
Despite Carter Starocci- Jordan Burroughs not being a possibility, Penn State wrestling fans could look forward to Starocci potentially going against another PSU legend: Starocci’s former teammate and fellow four-time national champion Aaron Brooks.
More must-reads: