PJ Duke on beating Yianni Diakomihalis after comments: 'I took that personal'

PJ Duke stunned the wrestling world when he beat Yianni Diakomihalis for the 70 KG spot on Team USA at Final X Saturday. He took some previous comments personally though.

Like Michael Jordan in The Last Dance, although Duke isn’t at that level quite yet, he had the last laugh when he beat the four-time NCAA champion at Cornell and favorite at the weight. The two definitely admired each other, but Diakomihalis was honest about what he wanted to do in the best-of-three series against Duke: mangle him.

Duke didn’t appear to have a leg up after Match 1, losing 10-0. But, he bounced back with a 17-10 victory and a pin in the next two to send the Prudential Center into a frenzy.

“I saw an interview with Flo the other day and he said … he was going to mangle me or whatever. I took that personal,” Duke said. “I’m not going to let that slide. He’s a good mentor to me, but I work my butt too hard to be mangled.”

Duke is set to attend Penn State next year and will graduate high school Monday. At 18-years-old, he’s the youngest member of the Senior World Team.

“I’m sure people will be saying, ‘He’s only 18. He’s too young for senior level,’” Duke said. “That’s what they said here. It didn’t go too well for them.”

Duke would be the youngest US male freestyle wrestler to compete at Senior Worlds since 1974. That year, Billy Rosado did so at 18 years old. But Duke certainly wrestled like a veteran to adjust to Diakomihalis in the latter two matches.

“Yeah, I knew that single was there a while, and he’s really funky, obviously a really good wrestler,” Duke said. “But … being patient and just those exchanges wore him out a little bit. So the more wrestling that happened, the better it was for me. And I caught him on his back and it was a wrap.”

Duke will obviously compete for a world title next but there are questions as to where he fits in Penn State’s lineup next year. Two-time All-American Tyler Kasak occupies 157 pounds and 2025 NCAA champion Mitchell Mesenbrink is at 165 pounds. Logically speaking, Kasak could redshirt while Duke wrestles as a true freshman and then the latter redshirts in 2026-27 while Mesenbrink finishes his college career, allowing Duke to move up a weight class the year after that.

That’s if Duke is ready to go right away for Penn State. Based on Saturday at Final X, he might very well be.