Tyron Woodley is returning to the wrestling mats.
On Wednesday, Real American Freestyle announced that the former UFC welterweight champion would be making his promotional debut in August at RAF 12, where he takes on UFC welterweight contender Joaquin Buckley.
A two-time Division 1 All-American at Missouri, Woodley had a successful amateur wrestling career before turning to MMA, where he won the UFC welterweight title and defended it four times. After losing his belt to Kamaru Usman in 2019, Woodley went
on a downslide, losing his next three fights before exiting the UFC and turning his attention to boxing, where he has gone 0-3. Now, Woodley returns to the arena where it all started for him.
Also a native of Missouri, Buckley wrestled in high school but never competed collegiately. However, Buckley developed excellent MMA wrestling and has already competed once before for RAF, losing by Tech Fall to former All-American Pat Downey at RAF 3.
RAF 12 takes place on Aug. 22 at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, and features the RAF debut of legendary American wrestler Jordan Burroughs.
