RAF05 Recap: Bigger and Better Yet Again

The Miami crowd got the full RAF experience when Colby Covington stormed the building, Kyle Dake won an Olympic rematch five years in the making, Jordan Oliver and Real Woods went down to the wire yet again and much more.

It was another instant classic and the perfect way to kick off the new year.

Colby Covington vs Luke Rockhold: A New Main Event Staple

After a press conference that had all of social media talking, Colby Covington took the RAF mat and put on a show against former UFC Middleweight Champ, Luke Rockhold.

Escorted to the mat by award-winning country artist, Brantley Gilbert, Covington struck early, landing his first takedown in under ten seconds and never stopped pouring it on. The NCAA All-American wasn’t just stepping in to have a good time, Covington brought the full “Chaos” experience into the main event.

After completing the 12-0 win Covington called for a match with UFC Hall of Famer Georges St-Pierre. Should he get his wish or not, he is the latest “must-see” wrestler on the RAF roster and will steal the show at any event or press conference.
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Kyle Dake vs Kadik: The Rematch The Fans Hoped For

Kyle Dake may have been only one match short of Olympic gold thanks to Mahamedkhabib “Kadik” Kadzimahamedau in 2020 and with his RAF belt on the line it was finally his chance to get revenge. Most people in life never get the sort of second chance “Kid Dynamite” was about to get and he made the most of it.

In one of the most exciting matches of the night, the two felt each other out for the first period, Dake taking a 1-0 lead into the second where he would turn up the heat and make it a 6-0 lead going into the final frame. Kadik stormed back and proved he can never be counted out by pushing the action to the final whistle and narrowly falling short by the score of 10-7.

The commentary team called for a trilogy, social media was calling for a trilogy, whether one should present itself or not it’s undeniable that a third installment will be about much more than gold for both men. It’s officially personal.
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Arman Tsarukyan vs Lance Palmer: Shocking Domination
A betting favorite coming into his RAF debut, the UFC’s #1 contender at lightweight accepted a daunting opponent in Lance Palmer. Palmer’s trophy case includes a Big Ten Title, four All-American awards and a National Championship runner-up trophy. None of which were able to throw Arman Tsarukyan off his game.

Tsarukyan put on a performance worthy of a title run. His first period 10-0 tech fall showed the Miami audience that he’s not just a “fighter who happens to wrestle” he’s a legitimate freestyle threat.
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Real Woods vs Jordan Oliver: Last Second Fireworks … Again

After scoring the final points to tie the match up against Real Woods at RAF03, Jordan Oliver took home the RAF featherweight title and was presented with an immediate rematch to declare an undisputed champion in the weight class. No technicalities, no criteria. A decisive title-holder.

After a failed weigh-in for Oliver, we got another last second criteria decision. With more contenders presenting themselves in the weight class, we might be further away than we were heading into the night. While there may still be unanswered questions, both men put on a show.

Woods took an early lead all the way into the closing seconds of the match when Oliver landed a push out point inside of ten seconds remaining and then one final push out point with one second on the clock. With Oliver scoring the final point, the 3-3 tie gave him the victory but after missing weight his inability to claim the belt leaves the featherweight strap still hanging up for grabs.

With two classic matches ending the same way already, there’s a case to be made Real Woods and Jordan Oliver run it back one more time.
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Yoel Romero vs Stephen Buchanan: A Dark Horse Emerges

After Yoel Romero missed weight and caused a jumble in the card Stephen Buchanan found himself taking on Yoel Romero the morning of RAF05. The University of Iowa’s most recent National Champion, Buchanan, saw the chaos Romero caused in his RAF debut against Pat Downey and still went out and landed the tech fall victory.

In the same way that Buchanan quietly became the most dominant 197-pounder, the former Hawkeye just separated himself from the pack as possibly Bo Nickal’s biggest title threat.

Not only did Buchanan defeat Romero by way of tech fall, he completely blanked the Olympic silver medalist and took home a 10-0 victory. He may have officially just gone from “under the radar” to title matchup.
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Mugzy vs Georgio Poullas: Poullas Reigns Supreme

Mugzy has effectively been making a name for himself in the RAF world but that didn’t stop Georgio Poullas from handling business.

Poullas walked to the mat with his corner man carrying a sign challenging any opponent to take him down and earn $1,000. The somewhat comedic antic proved to be legitimate when he toed the line with Mugzy and completely controlling the tempo, the center of the circle and the scoreboard.

Landing his first takedown at only the 11-second mark, Poullas was in the driver’s seat the entirety of the match. Mugzy wasn’t able to take him down, the $1,000 was safe and Poullas had an early night with an 11-1 tech fall victory.
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Nate Jackson vs Zahid Valencia: Valencia Returns to Form

After a tough RAF04 match against Parker Keckeisen, Zahid Valencia returned to right the ship immediately against Nate Jackson and that’s exactly what he did.

Scoring opportunities were tough to come by in one of the most hard-fought matches of the night but in typical Valencia-fashion, the talk of the senior circuit landed to clean takedowns that were all the difference in must-win performance.

Valencia won 4-0 and the rest of the cruiserweights have officially begun looking over their shoulders.
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Austin DeSanto vs Nathan Tomasello: The DeSanto Era Has Begun

Austin DeSanto picked up right where he left off in his previous match with Nathan Tomasello. After feeling the familiar foe out for just over a minute DeSanto got to work, securing a clean takedown, a couple rolls and a pushout. In a “blink and you’ll miss it” sequence, the Hawkeye Wrestling Club product was only 3 points away from tech falling his way into championship gold.

A minute into the second period a push out would give DeSanto the tech fall victory and his first taste of the RAF title.

While DeSanto is one of the most active freestyle competitors on roster, he’s one of the most game competitors in RAF. Look for the DeSanto Era to be filled with fast-turnarounds and plenty of fireworks.
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Cayden Henschel vs Bo Bassett: Machine Gun Funk

When news of a Cayden Henschel vs Bo Bassett matchup dropped it was the battle of the nice guys. While that may be true of their personalities outside of competition, both men took the mat looking to send his opponent home with nothing to smile about.

Henschel in particular came into the match as more “nice guy” than “killer” but the D2 star shook the building when he landed the first two takedowns of the match and jumped out to a 4-2 lead over the most highly anticipated prospect in the history of the sport.

What goes up comes down and Bassett was able to secure the 14-4 tech fall victory. Following the match Bassett faced off with RAF’s most recent signee, Olympic gold medalist, Henry Cejudo.

While it’s always fun to imagine who’s next for Bassett, Henschel put himself under the spotlight in a serious way with his explosive early offense. There are surely going to be powerhouse names that may look at a potential Cayden Henschel matchup differently after what they saw in the early moments of his RAF 5 match.
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Johnni DiJulius vs Pat Lugo: Lugo Back Like He Never Left

Pat Lugo has been out of the spotlight for awhile and made all of the wrestling fans realize what we had been missing out on.

The 2020 National Title favorite turned “story that was never finished” thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lugo put his name back in the thick of the mix when he completely shut down all offense of the Ohio state champion Johnni DiJulius.

Lugo didn’t grab a microphone and start verbally calling for heads but he most certainly put his name in the mix at featherweight following his 11-0 tech fall victory.

In case anybody forgot about Pat Lugo, he put them all on notice.Mostafa Elders vs Steve Mocco: Early Upset

Steve Mocco kicked off the night as the first favorite of the card. Mostafa Elders kicked off the card by playing first spoiler of the card.

Mocco’s Hodge Trophy seemed to just make him a bigger target for Elders who woke himself up after Mocco’s 1-0 lead entering the second period. Elders would put his head down, get to work and flawlessly fire back earning a 6-1 decision and likely an invitation back to a future RAF card.
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Bo Calls For Heads

After his originally scheduled opponent, Yoel Romero, greatly missed weight, Bo Nickal found himself on the microphone instead of on the mat. Sonnen gave Nickal the opportunity to clarify his next move and the Hodge Trophy winner called for either Colby Covington or Luke Rockhold after an explosive press conference exchange.

The RAF Light Heavyweight champion called his shot calling the men “disrespectful to the sport” and that he would “tear them limb from limb and send them packing.” The future is unclear but it’s rare that the Nittany Lion speaks with as much vitriol as he did on the RAF 5 mat. Whoever gets Nickal next may have a very long or very short night.

Once again we have new contenders emerging while the champions and contenders all seem to also put their best foot forward. Night in and night out the RAF roster continues to look more and more like a logjam of cold-blooded killers and nobody would have it any other way.

With potential classics already announced and more on the way, it’s hard to imagine topping RAF 5 but RAF 6 is right around the corner and sure to do just that.

‍Watch It All Again

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Relive every match, every moment and every callout from RAF05—only on FOX Nation.