Jordan Burroughs and Isaiah Martinez will wrestle for the sixth time Friday, June 18th. The two wrestled in both 2018 and 2019 Final X and this could be a preview of this year’s World Team Trials Finals at 79kg. Take a look at a comprehensive "by-the-numbers" breakdown of their careers to see what the data says about this match-up and how many points Isaiah Martinez will have to score to defeat Jordan Burroughs.

Watch Jordan Burroughs vs Isaiah Martinez Live on FloWrestling

Friday, June 18th - Event Starts at 7pm (ET)

Senior Level Records

Jordan Burroughs’ first senior level win was at the US Open in June of 2011. At that time, Isaiah Martinez was only 17 years old and just finishing up his junior year of high school. A few months later, Jordan Burroughs would go on to win the 2011 world team trials and ultimately the 2011 World Championships. Fast forward six years to May 2017 and Isaiah Martinez was just getting ready to wrestle his first senior level match at the 2017 Last Chance World Team Trials Qualifier. In those 6 years, Burroughs won 3 World Golds, 1 Olympic Gold, and 1 World bronze while compiling a 140-4 record. Take a look where both competitors records lie today:

Because Burroughs has been competing on the senior level longer, he obviously has more wins. A better, and more direct, comparison of their records is found in analyzing their match results since Isaiah Martinez started competing on the senior level (May 2017). Since then, their stats are more similar. Take a look:

Points Scored/Allowed

While Burroughs has the edge in winning percentage and overall wins, Isaiah Martinez has scored more points per match. On average, Burroughs scores a little more than 7 points/match. His scoring has stayed relatively the same over the entirety of his career. Though it’s close, Isaiah Martinez has averaged 8 points per match. Look at how the scoring numbers play out below:

What might be most remarkable in this breakdown is how few points Burroughs allows per match. He often gets credit for his ability to score points but his defense is equally as impressive. Burroughs gives up less than 2 points per match (1.7 to be exact) while Imar surrenders over 3 on average. On top of that, Burroughs has only surrendered more than 6 points 5 times in his 207 senior level matches.

The “Magic Number” for IMar

Diving deeper into Burroughs’ match history could reveal just how many points Isaiah Martinez will have to score, or the “magic number”, in order to defeat JB. First, when looking at the 5 match series between Burroughs and Imar, Jordan Burroughs has outscored Isaiah Martinez 32-13. Burroughs is averaging over 6 points a match while Imar is at just over 2. Take a look at the numbers below:

Zooming out to Burroughs' full career gives an even more accurate projection for how Isaiah Martinez will have to perform to defeat Burroughs for a second time. In Jordan Burrough's 13 losses, he allowed an average of 5.5 points/match and only scored 3.5 points. Also, in Burroughs' 194 wins, he’s only won 8 matches he’s allowed 6 or more points. Taking it a step further, there have only been 2 matches in Burroughs 194 wins where he allowed 7 or more points and still won.

Putting it all together, I'm putting the magic number against Burroughs on June 18th at 6 points for Isaiah Martinez. It’s highly unlikely for him to win with 5 or less points and Burroughs is always a great bet to put points on the board. Martinez should stray from trying to win a low scoring match but get out to an early lead in order to withstand the legendary late sprint from Burroughs.