Tyron Woodley does not have long to wait before his return to the RAF mats.
The former UFC welterweight champion made his debut under the Real American Freestyle banner last Saturday.
At the surging wrestling promotion’s one-year anniversary event, Woodley defeated UFC fighter Joaquin Buckley to record his first combat sports victory in nine years.
Not many are expecting ‘The Chosen One’ to make it back-to-back wins on September 5 given the challenge that awaits him, but Woodley thinks his RAF Moscow task is similar to the hurdle he just overcame.
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Tyron Woodley compares Khamzat Chimaev to his first RAF opponent Joaquin Buckley
Just two weeks after his successful first RAF outing, the welterweight legend will be back in action on September 5.
In the main event of RAF Moscow, which is the organization’s first card in Russia and second event outside of the United States after RAF Georgia, Woodley will wrestle Khamzat Chimaev.
The former UFC middleweight champion is known for his wrestling skills and has ragdolled much larger opponents than ‘The Chosen One’, including Dricus du Plessis to win gold inside the Octagon 12 months ago.
But by the sounds of things, Woodley is not expecting the Chimaev challenge to be much tougher than the threat Buckley posed in Cleveland.
“Khamzat is going to be strong, explosive, and very similar to (Buckley),” Woodley said during a post-match interview with MMA Fighting.
“Maybe a little bit more technical and a little bit more crafty with his techniques. But equally powerful and aggressive,” he added.
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Tyron Woodley has his hand raised after beating Joaquin Buckley at RAF 12. Credit: RAF Wrestling/Fox Nation
Before beating ‘New Mansa’ at RAF 12 on August 22, Woodley had lost seven straight fights across MMA and boxing.
After his UFC career ended with a submission loss to Vicente Luque, the 44-year-old dropped two bouts in the ring to YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.
He stayed in that sport for his most recent outing, which saw Woodley get knocked out by Anderson Silva last December.
2026-08-27 06:00:00
