The Olympic Gold medalist and 6x World Champion begins a new chapter in RAF.
Jordan Burroughs is wrestling for money. Real American Freestyle announced the signing this week, slotting the most decorated American freestyle wrestler in history into RAF 12 on August 22 at Rocket Arena in Cleveland. The event marks the one-year anniversary of the league’s launch.
For anyone who has watched Burroughs hand-fight at 74kg over the last decade, the news lands with weight. This is the man whose double-leg, set up off the collar tie and that signature blast step, became the template a generation of American wrestlers tried to copy. Olympic gold in London. Six World Championships. Combined, seven major international titles, the most by any American in freestyle wrestling, surpassing John Smith’s previous mark. He held a senior international unbeaten run of 69 consecutive victories, the kind of streak that doesn’t really have a comp in modern American wrestling.
RAF gives him somewhere to compete that isn’t the Olympic cycle.
Burroughs was, by some distance, the first American freestyle wrestler to cross over into mainstream visibility. Before the 2012 Games in London, he changed his Twitter handle to @alliseeisgold and called his shot publicly. He then went through the bracket undefeated to win Olympic gold at 23. He kept “All I See is Gold” as a personal mantra and as the name of the wrestling academy he now operates outside competition.
The promotion, founded by Chad Bronstein, Israel Martinez, and former WCW president Eric Bischoff, launched in August 2025 as the first unscripted professional freestyle wrestling league. It streams exclusively on FOX Nation. Per the league’s own figures cited by MyMMAnews, RAF events have generated more than 250 million social views per event since launch.
The summer slate is where the curiosity sits.
RAF 10 opens it this weekend at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, headlined by Khamzat Chimaev (15-1 in MMA) against Dillon Danis in a catchweight freestyle bout. Chimaev recently dropped the UFC middleweight title to Sean Strickland by split decision at UFC 328 in May. Watching him wrestle without strikes, against a grappler who has spent years framing himself as a jiu-jitsu specialist, is a clean stylistic question. Chimaev’s chain wrestling, the way he transitions from a body lock to a snatch single, doesn’t always need punches to work. Danis, training out of a no-gi base, will be defending in a rule set that rewards exposure points and pushouts, not guard retention.
RAF then heads internationally for the first time, with a July 11 event in Georgia. It’s the league’s first card outside the United States and a marker of where RAF wants the product to reach in 2026.
RAF 11 lands in Milwaukee on July 18, headlined by Arman Tsarukyan against Colby Covington, with the rebuilt Ben Askren versus Belal Muhammad as a co-main carrying its own narrative weight. Both Tsarukyan vs. Covington fighters built their MMA games on top pressure, and the Covington pace against Tsarukyan’s chain attacks should make for a long shift on the mat.
Then Burroughs in Cleveland on August 22.
The opponent for RAF 12 has not been announced. What’s worth tracking is how Burroughs adapts to a professional rule set with a different pace and entertainment expectation than what he competed under at the Olympics and worlds. Freestyle scoring still rewards what he does best: leg attacks, exposure, and turns from par terre. He’ll be 38 by the time the event lands. The shot is still there on tape. The question is volume across a card built for television rather than a tournament bracket.
RAF has also signaled intent beyond the main roster, with RAF NEXT GEN, a national youth wrestling tournament series, and athlete development clinics built to seed the broader competitive pipeline.
For wrestling fans who grew up watching Burroughs scoring on the world’s best from a deep underhook, August 22 in Cleveland is a date to circle. The blast double is back on a marquee.
