Over two decades after he last stepped onto a wrestling mat, Tyrone Woodley is poised to make a return in August. Marking his debut at the increasingly popular Real American Freestyle (RAF), the former UFC welterweight champion will face reigning welterweight contender Joaquin Buckley in a cruiserweight bout.

Notably, Tyron Woodley makes a comeback at age 44. While he left the UFC five years ago, he embarked briefly on a boxing career where he faced Jake Paul twice.

“X All-American Tyron Woodley returns to the mat to face Joaquin Buckley in Cleveland,” RAF wrote on Instagram while sharing the fight poster featuring Woodley and Buckley.

What adds further significance to the matchup is that Woodley and Buckley compete at RAF 12, an event set to celebrate the promotion’s one-year anniversary. The promotion’s inaugural event was held in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 30 last year, with the anniversary show returning to the city once again.

A two-time Division 1 All-American, Woodley enjoyed a successful amateur wrestling career, compiling a collegiate wrestling record of 110-38 during his time at the University of Missouri. A standout competitor at 165 pounds, Woodley made his mixed martial arts debut in 2009.

Following his failed attempt at capturing Strikeforce’s welterweight title in 2012, Woodley joined the UFC a year later, where he knocked out Jay Hieron at UFC 156. After a loss and a three-year climb through the division, he eventually secured the promotion’s welterweight championship. Woodley went on to defend the title four times before Kamaru Usman outpointed him at UFC 235 six years ago.

Thereafter, Woodley lost momentum and entered a four-fight losing streak. On March 27, 2021, the first-round stoppage defeat to Vicente Luque marked his final UFC appearance after completing eight years with the promotion.

Though Woodley later signed with the Global Fight League, his participation never got off the ground after the company’s events were postponed indefinitely.

Incidentally, Woodley’s UFC exit saw him lace up boxing gloves, making his professional boxing debut against a rising Jake Paul. Despite his experience as a mixed martial artist, Woodley suffered back-to-back defeats to the YouTuber-turned-fighter. He returned to the boxing ring four years later only to suffer a second-round TKO loss to another former UFC champion and legend, Anderson Silva.

Outside the cage and the ring, Tyron Woodley also found success as an analyst. Most recently, he appeared on the broadcast team for Paul’s MVP MMA 1 event in Inglewood, California, last month.

That stint followed years of experience on the UFC on FOX broadcast desk, where Woodley had the opportunity to work alongside Curt Menefee, Michael Bisping, and Dominick Cruz, closely analyzing pre-fight and post-fight events, as well as weigh-ins.

From the Octagon to the mat: UFC veterans pursue a new chapter in RAF

Woodley’s latest move follows a growing list of former UFC champions, some of whom are no longer with the promotion, extending their competitive careers through appearances on the freestyle mat. The most prominent name on that list is former two-division champion Henry Cejudo, who, after making his debut at the RAF06 in February, is set to headline another event scheduled for July 11 at Tbilisi Arena in Georgia, against Merab Dvalishvili.

Even among veterans, like Woodley, the promotion appears to have gained significant traction. Prominent examples in that category include former lightweight champions Benson Henderson and Frankie Edgar, as well as interim title holder Tony Ferguson, all of whom are between 42 and 44 years old.

One of the most significant reasons these former champions appear willing to try their hand at wrestling is their background in elite-level amateur wrestling. Given RAF’s departure from submission-based disciplines such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu, many of them find an immediate connection to the style that first brought them success.

A more personal explanation for that transition was offered by one of the RAF’s most recent additions, Colby Covington. “I want to test myself on this mat in the first sport that I started in. I started in wrestling. As a little kid, this is the sport that brought me into the UFC and gave me everything I had in the UFC. It’s wrestling. This is how I got an education. It got me a degree to go to college,” the former interim UFC welterweight champion said.

Making his freestyle debut at RAF 05, where he defeated Luke Rockhold, Covington is now a three-fight veteran, with his most recent appearance coming against Chris Weidman at RAF 09 on May 30.

Against that backdrop, and with his matchup against Buckley scheduled for August 22, Woodley has ample time to sharpen and reacquaint himself with skills he may not have used in years.

Meanwhile, for fans, it is another opportunity to watch one of the UFC’s most exciting fighters of the last decade compete again, albeit in an entirely different format.