With Philly up next, RAF continues to deliver ‘full circle’ moments for the world’s top wrestlers

A sizable chunk of Darian Cruz’s life has revolved around wrestling — in its purest form.

Cruz, a Bethlehem, Pa., native, finished fifth in the 57-kilogram (125-pound) weight division representing Puerto Rico at the Olympic Games in Paris. Today he has turned to teaching Today, he has turned to teaching what he’s learned to others, as the assistant head wrestling coach at Penn.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have an itch to scratch.

That’s where Real American Freestyle comes in.

Known as RAF, the wrestling outfit is the professional outlet for elite Greco-Roman-style wrestlers, which features former college All-Americans like Cruz. In fact, looking at the RAF’s recent fight cards, that would appear to be the standard.

Entering its second year, RAF is now set to launch its eighth installment, which boasts a card similar to the kinds you’d see in a UFC pay-per-view. The next stop? RAF’s caravan will be parked outside the Liacouras Center on Saturday (8 p.m., Fox Nation).

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“Philadelphia is a fight city, and RAF belongs on the biggest stages … as the professional home for the sport’s best,” said Chad Bronstein, CEO and cofounder of RAF.

Unlike a boxing match or MMA fight, where vitriol between opponents is real, or often manufactured, Cruz said RAF matches are all about the grappling, which seems to naturally draw former and current MMA fighters with deep wrestling backgrounds onto their cards.

“Having a event so close to home, being from Bethlehem and now coaching and training here in Philly, this is just awesome,” Cruz told The Inquirer this week. “It feels like a home match. All the responses I’ve received from the wrestling community and were so, so excited for [RAF to come here]. So it’s cool seeing everybody getting excited for this event.”

That doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of trash talk. Cruz, who acknowledged that he’s actually friendly with his opponent, Lucas Byrd, says that the duo have spent time training together in Philly over the past two summers and said he has familiarity in what Byrd brings to the mat.

“We’re actually pretty decent friends,” said Cruz. “We’ve scrapped the past, like, two years over the summer and a little bit over winter breaks. So we’re super familiar. I think there’s an understanding of where he’s coming from and how much he’s grown, and I’m continuing to do the same. So, yeah, it’s familiar foes.”

And that’s where RAF differs.

Wrestling proved it can draw a crowd in Philly, as it did around this time just last year, when the NCAA wrestling championships brought a two-day sold-out event to Xfinity Mobile Arena. It’s a community of devotees who believe the sport appeals to the old and the young. That point will be evidenced on the RAF mat in UFC legend Urijah Faber. Faber’s name should sound familiar to even the most casual of fight fans, as he’s been in the fight game on some capacity since the mid-2000s.

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But wrestling was his first love, and now the 47-year-old father of two will step into RAF’s ring on Saturday to take on Arman Tsarukyan in a middleweight bout. At 3-0 in RAF, Tsarukyan, 29, is close to 20 years junior to Faber and a rising star in RAF’s talent pool.

To Faber, who’s also a former WEC featherweight champion, Tsarukyan is the perfect opponent to test himself.

“I’m a competitor, we’re competitors, man, this is what we love to do,” Faber said. “I actually stopped wrestling competitively in 2003, but it never was too far away, as I still had to wrestle for the next 20 years as a fighter. I look at a guy like Arman, for example, he’s subsidizing his own [MMA] fight career and doing something that he has to do anyways [as an MMA fighter].

“That’s why RAF is great, we get to go in there and lock horns with the best wrestlers and sharpen those skills. And, if we’re being honest, get to have another income stream in something we love.”

The match against Tsarukyan will be the second for Faber, who was the main event at RAF 06 in February against Henry Cejudo. Cejudo features as the main event in Saturday’s card against Merab Dvalishvili.

“Still being able to wrestle at a high level and to be a part of this organization checks a box for me and for my competitive spirit,” Faber said. “It’s such a mental game, and [being able to] test myself, my self-belief is so importantly mentally for wrestlers and fighters. So I’m excited for the challenge and curious to see how this is going to go.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Cruz, who says that through RAF his wrestling career as college All-American, Olympian, coach, and now professional competitor feels like a full-circle moment. He’s said that members of the Quakers program have not only requested tickets, but have seen where they can volunteer to help with the event just to get backstage and cheer their coach on.

“I feel super privileged because I get to coach at a great institution and learn, um, coaching strategy, coaching technique, look at the game from a different perspective,” Cruz said. “But then I get to actually apply it in real time and really get to go put it on the line.”

“There are coaches, I’m sure, nowadays that have grown so much as a coach, and they would love to have the opportunity to test what they’ve learned. I actually am lucky enough where I get to do that. There’s going to be a fairly good number of people coming up that will be at this show, people I work with, coach, and train with. So I look at this as a chance to put my money where my mouth is and, win or lose, I’m still an influence and role model for these guys, and I don’t take that for granted.”

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