The rise of Real American Freestyle (RAF) over the last few months has been fun.
Airing on FOX Nation, RAF has found a niche and gained popularity. Their events are drawing sizable crowds, and by all accounts, the athletes are cashing serious checks. RAF is giving a stage to hotshot collegiate wrestlers, wrestlers actively pursuing Olympic greatness, and UFC fighters with prior wrestling experience. It offers a little something for everyone, and there have been some very entertaining matchups in the promotion’s
short lifespan.
The problem is the erratic matchmaking.
There are lots of great matchups on every RAF card, but there’s also a trend developing that shows RAF doesn’t understand how to utilize its older UFC talent. Popular stars like Clay Guida have been brought in and sacrificed to top-tier young wrestlers. The idea of putting over a young athlete off the back of an established name isn’t new, but it’s not going to make fight fans tune in either.
Last night’s main event between Urijah Faber and Arman Tsarukyan was downright absurd and unnecessary. Faber is a 46-year-old former Bantamweight. Tsarukyan is widely regarded as one of the very best Lightweights alive, and he’s in his athletic prime at 29 years of age. A Master of Sports in wrestling, Tsarukyan is very decorated and skilled on the canvas.
He does not need further advantages.
There was never a case made for how Faber — older, smaller, and further removed from the game — could actually upset Tsarukyan. The matchup was met with a collective eye roll, not anticipation. The actual bout was as one-sided as expected, except it carried with it an added element of danger when Tsarukyan bulldozed Faber off the mats and into the commentary booth.
That could have been very bad, and it’s not like the win actually built any hype for Tsarukyan.
What’s peculiar here is RAF occasionally matches its UFC talent very well. Chad Mendes vs. Michael Chandler from RAF 03, for example, was a great booking of a retired ex-UFC star. Chandler was a little bigger, sure, but the two were at least comparable in age and experience, which made for a much better match (highlights here). If you want to put an established UFC star against a top young wrestler, at least give the UFC fighter a size advantage to create a little intrigue.
At 46, Urijah Faber should be rolling with a top-ranked 125-pound wrestler, a fighter from his own generation, or a modern fighter without the same collegiate background. I would love to watch Faber show off his wrestling skill against Scott Jorgensen or Sean O’Malley. Arman Tsarukyan, conversely, could wrestle the likes of Colby Covington or a recent All-American of roughly his size, as he’s in top form and perfect for that kind of challenge.
Pitting the two against each other never made sense, and that kind of mismatch will hold RAF back in the long run.
