In his opening-round bout, Cox cruised past Amarhajy Mahamedau (Belarus), 7-1, to advance to the quarterfinals.
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Two weeks later, Cox earned gold at an Olympic Games World Qualifying Tournament in Mongolia to punch his ticket to Rio.
The American side challenged the non-scoring decision, and upon review, it was determined that Cox should have been given credit a two-point score.
In the quarterfinals, Cox matched up with 2015 World bronze medalist Alireza Mohammed Karimimachiani (Iran), a rematch from the UWW Men’s Freestyle World Cup in Los Angeles on June 12 where Cox defeated the Iranian, 6-2. A thousand congratulations to Cox, his family, and the Mizzou Wrestling family. And in 2016, Cox has now won a national championship, an Olympic trial, and a medal. “I didn’t know until afterwards that I was even down”.
Cox defeated Reineris Salas Perez of Cuba on Saturday in the Rio Olympics third-place match for the 86 kg weight class. About a minute later, Cox was put on a shot clock, and worked furiously to take Salas Perez down. A scramble ensued on the mat, with the referees initially awarding no scores to Cox. Both opponents finished the matches with just one point on the board against Cox. That decision put Cox back in the lead with six seconds left, but a perturbed Salas refused to come back to the center of the mat and resume the fight.
As a result, Salas was subsequently disqualified and Cox, a two-time NCAA champions, had his arm raised in victory.
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Cox is the seventh Missouri athlete to win a medal at the Olympics.
