Stephen Buchanan is gunning for the 2028 Olympics and he took out a former silver medalist at RAF 5 with a lopsided win over Yoel Romero.
Originally scheduled to face Pat Downey on the card, Buchanan ended up drawing Romero instead after the multi-time UFC title challenger missed weight for his match with Bo Nickal. Buchanan didn’t skip a beat, however, after he scored a pair of takedowns in the opening period that put him up big heading into the second.
It didn’t take long for Buchanan to finish the
match with another two-point score to go up 10-0, which gave him the technical fall to beat Romero. Afterwards, Buchanan called his shot with hopes of facing another UFC legend in the future.
“I’ve been training for like six months,” Buchanan said about his move from folkstyle to freestyle wrestling. “Loving this stage, loving you guys.
“I mean competing nationally at 97 kilos but I’d love to share the mats with Wyatt Hendrickson or Gable Steveson. Let’s get Jon Jones. Jon Jones, I’d love to share the mats with you.”
For his part, Romero paid homage to Buchanan on a job well done after he picked up a similar win over Downey in his return to wrestling at RAF 4 in December.
“No excuses,” Romero said. “The young man is really strong.”
Buchanan drew first blood after swooping inside for a single leg turned into a takedown to put Romero on his heels to start the opening period. A few moments later, Buchanan hit another takedown and then a pair of turns to put Romero down 8-0 going into the second period.
Romero was playing defense and hand fighting but not really producing any offense and a split second later Buchanan made him pay with another two-point takedown to end the match.
With the 10-0 victory, Buchanan made quite the statement in his RAF debut with hopes that he’ll make waves on the international scene soon enough as he targets the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
