RAF 02
RAF 02 was the second live event staged by Real American Freestyle (RAF), a professional freestyle wrestling promotion, held on October 25, 2025 at the Bryce Jordan Center on the campus of Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania, and streamed exclusively on Fox Nation.1 • 2 The card was headlined by Kyle Dake's cruiserweight title defense against Boris Makoev and included four championship bouts among its ten matches.1
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Date and venue | October 25, 2025, Bryce Jordan Center, Penn State University, State College, Pennsylvania1 |
| Broadcast | Exclusively on Fox Nation, starting 7:00 p.m. EST2 |
| Main event | Kyle Dake defeated Boris Makoev by decision, 7-1, retaining the RAF Cruiserweight Championship1 |
| Other title bouts | Helen Maroulis won the women's flyweight title 6-0 over Samantha Stewart; Nathan Tomasello won the bantamweight title 5-3 over Matt Ramos; David Carr won the welterweight title 18-6 over Amr Reda3 • 1 |
| Card size | Ten bouts, four of them title fights1 |
| Attendance | Around 3,000 attendees, after the debut RAF 01 event drew a sold-out crowd of 4,5004 |
| Follow-up | RAF 03 was announced for Chicago on November 29, 20253 |
Background and promotion
Real American Freestyle was founded in 2025 by Chad Bronstein together with Eric Bischoff and the late Hulk Hogan, presenting unscripted freestyle wrestling between Olympic, NCAA, and MMA competitors in a fight-night format.5 • 6 The promotion's debut event, RAF 01, took place in Cleveland in August 2025.5
The second event was first announced for November 8 in Penn State University's historic Rec Hall.5 It was ultimately held on October 25 at the larger Bryce Jordan Center, with a ticket-information update reported by WHTM-TV covering the new date.1 Kurt Angle worked commentary alongside Bubba Jenkins, with guest analysts including Bo Nickal, and Eric Bischoff served as the promotion's Chief Media Officer.2
Card changes
Days before the event, the lineup changed in two places. Roman Bravo-Young, the former Penn State national champion, was confirmed injured and removed from the card; Matt Ramos took his place, setting up an immediate rematch against bantamweight champion Nathan Tomasello, who had beaten Ramos 4-3 on the first RAF card. Ukrainian Andriy Yatsenko was also removed, with Iowa All-American Austin DeSanto inserted to face 2016 NCAA champion Nico Megaludis.7
Results
All ten bouts, with winners, methods, and scores as reported:3 • 1
- Bantamweight: Austin DeSanto defeated Nico Megaludis by technical fall, 10-0, in the card's opening match1
- Welterweight: Tajmuraz Salkazanov defeated James Green by decision, 4-4 (criteria)3
- Unlimited: Mason Parris defeated Alexandr Romanov by technical fall, 11-03
- Openweight: Cayden Henschel defeated Keelon Jimison by technical fall, 11-11
- Cruiserweight: Nate Jackson defeated Carter Starocci by decision, 7-2, in Starocci's RAF debut3 • 1
- Heavyweight: Jake Varner defeated Pat Downey by decision, 5-13
- Welterweight title: David Carr defeated Amr Reda by technical fall, 18-63
- Bantamweight title: Nathan Tomasello defeated Matt Ramos by decision, 5-33
- Women's flyweight title: Helen Maroulis defeated Samantha Stewart by decision, 6-03
- Cruiserweight title (main event): Kyle Dake defeated Boris Makoev by decision, 7-13
Main event. Dake, who won four NCAA titles at four separate weights and took Olympic bronze twice, dominated the handfight right from the start, earned push-outs in each period, and capped things off with a late takedown plus exposure against Makoev, a two-time World medalist.1 Maroulis, a three-time Olympic medalist, shut out Canada's Samantha Stewart for the women's flyweight title.1
Format and rules
RAF bouts use modified freestyle rules: three two-minute periods, a 10-point lead ending the bout as a technical fall, no overtime, and no brackets or teams. A takedown is worth 2 points, a step-out 1, standing exposure 4 or 5, and a wrestler who fails to score within 30 seconds of a passivity warning concedes a point to the opponent.8 When a bout is tied after three periods, the last wrestler to score wins on criteria, which is how Salkazanov's 4-4 bout with Green was decided.8 • 3
Aftermath
The event was followed by RAF 03 in Chicago on November 29, 2025, with Holly Holm confirmed for that card.3 • 1 In January 2026, Fox Nation extended its partnership with RAF in a new long-term agreement to remain the league's exclusive broadcast partner, citing RAF as a top subscription driver for the platform.9
References
- RAF 02 Results: Dake vs Makoev, Full Fight Card, RAF Insider
- Real American Freestyle RAF02 Event Guide, Wrestling.news
- RAF 02 rolls out of State College with more momentum, Illinois Matmen
- Real American Freestyle Creates New Path for College Athletes, Athelo Group
- Eric Bischoff Confirms Talks With Multiple Networks About Weekly RAF Wrestling Series, Wrestlezone
- Hulk Hogan's new endeavor has Cleveland ties, Axios Cleveland
- RAF 02 Card Updates Announced, InterMat
- RAF Wrestling Rules: Real American Freestyle Scoring & Format
- FOX Nation Extends Partnership With Real American Freestyle in New Long-Term Deal, Fox News Media
Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Comedy, drama, and general-genre web series
Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026
Your notes
© 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI. Free to use with credit under the Edgepedia Community License. Developers: read Edgepedia by API or MCP. Embed a reference card.