Olympic champions Maroulis, Varner among RAF 02 winners at Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The second Real American Freestyle card delivered 10 top-tier bouts featuring past and present U.S. wrestling icons, international headliners and even some influencer flavor on Saturday night at Bryce Jordan Center on the campus of Penn State University.

Three Olympic medalists took the RAF mat, two of whom were in championship showdowns.

In the main event, two-time Olympic bronze medalist Kyle Dake retained the Men’s Cruiserweight belt with a 7-1 decision over two-time World medalist Boris Makoev, who competed internationally for Russia and Slovakia.

The co-main event saw three-time Olympic medalist and Rio Olympic champion Helen Maroulis blank Canadian Samantha Stewart, 6-0, to collect the Women’s Bantamweight belt. Maroulis is fresh off a gold medal win at the 2025 Senior World Championships, her fourth World Championships title.

London Olympic champion Jake Varner toed the line at Men’s Heavyweight against past U.S. World Team member Pat Downey. Varner took the match 5-1 in his first competition since the 2018 World Team Trials. He has remained active in the sport as coach of Penn State’s Nittany Lion Wrestling Club.

2025 U.S. World Team member David Carr breezed past 2024 Olympian Amr Hussein, who represents Egypt internationally, to become the Men’s Welterweight champion. Carr just took fifth place at the World Championships in the 74 kg division.

Retaining the Men’s Bantamweight belt was Nathan Tomasello, a past NCAA champion at Ohio State. He took a 5-3 decision over Matt Ramos in the first championship match sequel in RAF history.

Other notable athletes entered from the Team USA perspective were two-time World medalist James Green at Men’s Welterweight and Olympian Mason Parris at Men’s Heavyweight. Green lost a criteria contest to four-time World medalist Tajmuraz Salkazanov, of Russian descent, who represents Slovakia. Parris posted an 11-0 technical fall against MMA star Aleksandr Romanov.

Complete results from RAF 02 are available below. The promotion announced RAF 03 will be in Chicago, Ill., on November 29. More information is available at realamericanfreestyle.com.