by Morgan Tremmel, Cronkite News
March 4, 2026
TEMPE – The final whistle had sounded for the match between UFC No.1 contender Arman Tsarukyan and Georgio Poullas, but Tsarukyan seemed to forget that this was Real American Freestyle and not MMA.
He slammed his fist down onto Poullas’ chin, setting off a brawl that quickly became the story of RAF 06 in Tempe Saturday night.
The event featured a card filled with 10 current and former MMA fighters attempting to return to where many of them started in combat sports – on a wrestling mat.
However, the grappling for Tsarkuyan and Poullas began long before their match. They were both chippy in their pre-match press conference Friday, even putting money on the line for each takedown achieved by either wrestler.
That did not end up as a storyline since only one official takedown was recorded. Instead, the brawl that involved both wrestlers and their coaches was the scene most people were buzzing about after the matches.
Neither athlete spoke with the media after the event, but Eric Bischoff, Real American Freestyle’s chief media officer, addressed it during his post-fight press conference.
“I was disappointed because there’s so much other great stuff about Real American Freestyle,” Bischoff said. “(The brawl) is going to create controversy, and you know the right kind of controversy can create cash, but it can also create backlash.”
Poullas was seen in an ambulance on his Instagram account after the event concluded and has claimed that Tsarukyan should have been disqualified. Tsarukyan, on the other hand, has turned the clash into a marketing initiative, releasing a T-shirt with his tweet from after the fight and talking trash on his private plane.
While Tsarukyan and Poullas were the story of the night, Henry Cejudo, a gold medalist in freestyle wrestling at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games who grew up in the Maryvale neighborhood of Phoenix, was considered the main draw.
The former two-division UFC champion showed he was ready to return to freestyle wrestling, where he made his name before turning to UFC bouts. His opponent was another UFC legend, Urijah Faber. Cejudo won the main event of the evening 11-0 via technical fall.
“I’m just blown away, and I’m just so proud of the sport and thankful for Eric Bischoff, Chad (Bronstein) and Izzy (Martinez) for really bringing this sport and making it corporate to where it’s not just going to be NFL Sundays, it’s going to be wrestling every day,” Cejudo said.
Bischoff, Bronstein, Martinez and the late Hulk Hogan launched RAF in 2025.
Cejudo called out former UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili, and they committed to a match on the April 18 RAF 08 card in Philadelphia, bringing even more UFC experience into RAF.
Cejudo was not the only big name and former champion to wrestle Saturday, as former bantamweight champion and current flyweight UFC fighter Alijmain Sterling stepped up against another former UFC champion, Benson Henderson.
This was the first UFC versus UFC match in the RAF’s short history, and for Henderson, it was a chance to compete again in a sport that he holds near and dear to his heart.
“Wrestling was my first love,” Henderson said. “So to see what has now come to fruition from where it was when I was beginning a long time ago, to where it is now, it’s amazing to see. So I’m happy to be a small part of this thing.”
Although Henderson is retired from UFC competition, Sterling is still an active UFC fighter, but when the opportunity struck for him to compete at RAF, he took it. Sterling always wanted to be an Olympic wrestler, but unless you were at that level before the RAF came along, there was little money to be made in the sport.
“I always wanted to be an Olympian, I just never had the chance or an opportunity to get there, and MMA was a way to make money really early on,” Sterling said. “So I kind of pivoted and gave up on the wrestling dream.”
Sterling also said he wants to help grow the wrestling community and help bring freestyle wrestling mainstream by competing in future RAF events.
“I’m hoping I get to wrestle a couple more times, maybe three, four, five, as long as it works with my fight schedule, I’m down,” Sterling said.
Sterling proved his wrestling prowess in the match by technical fall in the third round. Sterling was recruited for this event at the last minute by Cejudo after Chad Mendes pulled out of the match against Henderson due to injury.
Having the draw and experience of a UFC legend in Cejudo is something that organizers noted in the post-match press conference.
“Henry is just unbelievable to work with,” Bronstein said. “Calls me and Izzy up all the time and gives us his opinions and tries to help us out.”
Bubba Jenkins, who competed against the RAF welterweight champion David Carr, was a prolific college wrestler and won the 157-pound NCAA championship at Arizona State in the 2010-11 season after departing Penn State.
Jenkins, like Sterling, transitioned to MMA after college to make money and keep competing. Now, after many years of competing, he was able to return to his roots and compete at the RAF at the age of 38.
“It means a lot because they’re (providing) the stage for wrestlers who wanted that professional league,” Jenkins said. “I was being booed for celebrating and having celebrations, but that’s the epitome of what Real American Freestyle is – you know, having entertaining matches, having the crowd be involved, having the big moves happen.”
Despite losing his match, Jenkins had a big smile after, one that was similar to most MMA fighters who got to compete in what was their first true love at RAF 06.
Tsarukyan was the sole exception, as he left with punches instead of smiles.
RAF 06 came to an end with two UFC legends, Faber and Cejudo, celebrating with their kids at the place where it all started for them – on the mat.
“Its a mixture of my kids and this beautiful sport that took this little kid out of the ghetto and to go to the four corners of the world,” Cejudo said.
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