Michael Chandler returned to the wrestling mats on Saturday night in the RAF 3 main event and turned back the clock with a near shutout performance over fellow UFC veteran Chad Mendes.
While Mendes was the more accomplished wrestler during his collegiate career, Chandler thwarted him with size, power and speed during the three-period match.
An early mistake from Mendes cost him when he had Chandler tied up and attempted to go for a roll but he slipped off. A split second later, Chandler reversed with a roll of his own to score two points and along with another point for passivity against Mendes, he went up 3-0 after the first period.
From there, Chandler and Mendes continued to battle for position with the match being paused a couple of times due to an accidental eye poke and a couple of head butts. As a result, Mendes actually had some significant swelling around his eye but he continued.
Late in the match, Chandler scored another point with a push out and that sealed the deal with the one-time UFC title challenger getting the win with a 4-1 final. It was an impressive showing for Chandler after he was an All-American at Missouri but beating Mendes wasn’t enough because he made a surprising callout after his win.
“I’d like to say since 2009, there was a guy out there from the Midwest in the Big 12, who beat me a couple of times that I haven’t been able to get him off my mind. Jordan Burroughs, this ain’t 2009! I’m bigger, I’m faster, I’m stronger, I’m more dangerous! Jump in the RAF ring with me, if you dare.”
Of course, Burroughs is an Olympic gold medalist and multi-time World Champion, who is widely considered one of the greatest American wrestlers of all time. That would certainly be a tall task for Chandler but he obviously seems to think he can get the job done, although it’s likely his attention now turns towards a potential fight against Conor McGregor in the UFC with the pair potentially meeting at the White House card in June.
Elsewhere on the card, a pair of UFC fighters found out the tough way that going back to wrestling isn’t as easy as it might look.
Joaquin Buckley replaced PFL light heavyweight champion Corey Anderson on the card against Pat Downey but he didn’t last long in the match. Downey hit a well-timed throw early to go up big on the UFC welterweight and then put the match away with a huge slam after the lifted Buckley into their and brought him crashing back down to the mat.
The slam finished the match with Downey winning by technical fall — a 10-point lead in the match — with a final score of 12-0. Afterwards, Downey called out UFC middleweight Bo Nickal but he’ll have to wait his turn after the three-time NCAA champion booked a matchup against Yoel Romero in December.
Clay Guida also returned to the mats but found little success in his match against Cayden Henschel, who blanked the UFC Hall of Famer with a technical fall of his own with a final score of 11-0.
In one of the more surprising results on the card, Bella Mir — daughter of UFC legend Frank Mir and an Olympic hopeful in 2028 — suffered a comeback loss to Alexis Gomez. After dominating the early part of the match, Mir was taken down by Gomez late with another turn leading to a rapid-fire succession of points.
That led to Gomez securing the 7-3 win just weeks after Mir soundly defeated her in a separate match. There’s a good shot these two meet again in the future in what appears to be a growing rivalry between two of the top women’s wrestlers in the sport.
Here are the full results for RAF 3:
Michael Chandler def. Chad Mendes, 4-1
Kennedy Blades def. Alejandra Rivera, 11-0 tech fall
Akhmed Tazhudinov def. Anthony Cassioppi, via pin
Andrii Yatsenko def. Spencer Lee, via pin
Austin Gomez def. Austin O’Connor, 9-1
Jordan Oliver def. Real Woods, 2-2 (wins by criteria)
Cayden Henschel def. Clay Guida, 11-0, tech fall
Pat Downey def. Joaquin Buckley, 12-0 tech fall
Alexis Gomez def. Bella Mir, 7-3
Bo Bassett def. Darrion Caldwell via pin
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