Lance Palmer was a four-time All-American wrestler at The Ohio State University before deciding to put that sport behind him to transition into MMA on a full-time basis.
Now, nearly 15 years later, the 38-year-old veteran returns to his old stomping ground after signing with Real American Freestyle, where he also serves as the head of talent development. He came up short in his first match back taking on recent Olympian Austin Gomez, but Palmer now has arguably an even bigger opportunity awaiting
him with a showdown scheduled against No. 1 ranked UFC lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan at RAF 5 on Saturday.
Palmer jumped at the opportunity when one of RAF’s co-founders mentioned the name to him in passing.
“I was talking to Chad [Bronstein] about it and he’s like ‘We’re trying to sign this Arman guy,’” Palmer told MMA Fighting. “I said this Arman guy? He said, ‘Yeah, he’s got a pretty big following, he’s in the UFC.’ I was like, I know Arman. We trained with some of the same people for our grappling and jiu-jitsu.”
Palmer was familiar with Tsarukyan from his accomplishments in the UFC and actually reached out about potentially training together at one point. He still hopes that’s possible in the future.
But when it comes to wrestling, Palmer knows Tsarukyan is stepping into a different world regardless of how much experience he has on the mats from his years training in MMA.
“He’s a guy that his style of grappling in the cage is awesome. I love it,” Palmer said. “To be able to get this as a wrestling match because wrestling is definitely different and you don’t have the cage, everything is different. My very first match against Austin Gomez, who is a returning Olympian for Team Mexico, you go in there and I almost felt like a fish out of water. Because he’s wrestling every single day and I’ve been training MMA every single day for the last 15 years instead of just pure wrestling.
“These last six months getting back into my roots of wrestling and obviously freestyle and folkstyle are completely different styles but just being on the mat every single day and getting that mindset back, different ways of finishing the shot and hand fighting and setting up shots, you’re not setting it up with hands anymore [like you would in MMA]. It’s a lot of different things to mentally turn that switch back on to the wrestling game. It’s definitely a transition but it’s been fun.”
On paper this is a matchup between two accomplished fighters with Palmer claiming two PFL championships and also holding the belt in World Series of Fighting, but he knows that his wrestling roots run deeper than that of Tsarukyan, who reached a rank of Master of Sports in wrestling in his home country but never pursued competitive championships in that sport.
Palmer isn’t taking Tsarukyan lightly because he knows this is a tough challenge for him, but he also recognizes that this is a chance to show there are different levels when it comes to the best of the best in wrestling versus MMA.
“I have to hold it down for the wrestlers,” Palmer said. “On the other token, Arman is from that part of the world where wrestling is just in your DNA. We know, even if it wasn’t at a high level, he wrestled at some point. I know that I’m not going in there against a guy like Belal [Muhammad], who has not wrestled a lick of competitive wrestling. I know he’s going to have that type of skill set and I know he can scramble because I’ve watched his grappling.
“But in freestyle there’s certain types of scrambling that get you scored on. It’s just a different game. I don’t know what to expect from him in the wrestling world but that’s why it’s exciting. It’s the unknown.”
Add to that, Palmer is giving up size in this match after wrestling at 149 pounds in college and then fighting at featherweight while Tsarukyan is a natural lightweight and even bigger in his off-season.
“Straight wrestling, I feel like it’s a great matchup,” Palmer said. “He has the size advantage on me but I feel I have the technical advantage. So we’ll see where it goes.”
There aren’t going to be any punches thrown on Saturday, but Palmer also expects fireworks because both of them come from combat sports where there’s always a statement to be made in every match.
That makes Palmer that much more excited to see Tsarukyan standing across the mats from him.
“The competitive side of me, yeah I want this match because it’s a guy who has a big name in the UFC and the No. 1 contender,” Palmer said. “I’ve loved watching his fights because of his grappling. I want to see how good his wrestling is.
“It’s good for me, competitively, because I haven’t fought in a while. It brings back that fighter mindset in me going against a guy who is a fighter.”
