WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — For the first time since becoming a two-time All-American in March, Purdue junior Joey Blaze will return to the mat at Real American Freestyle 08 on Saturday night.
Taking place at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Blaze will square off in a freestyle match with three-time NCAA champion Jason Nolf (Penn State). Designated as a middleweight bout in a card of roughly a dozen contests, Blaze’s match will take place some time after the listed start time of 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday.
The broadcast will be streamed live on Fox Nation.
RAF has become the top promotion of real professional wrestling in the past year and has shown tremendous growth with some of the sport’s biggest names competing as regulars.
After his 2025 NCAA runner-up finish, Blaze became an international household name with a dominant run in freestyle wrestling at the age of 19. As the No. 7 seed at USA Wrestling’s Senior World Team Trials, he impressed with a third-place finish competing against some of the best and most experienced wrestlers in the country, winning four matches.
Blaze later competed at USA Wrestling’s Final X competition, which cemented his status as the fourth-ranked freestyle wrestler in the nation at his weight. He also went on to represent the United States in a rare Team USA vs. Russia dual and later won the prestigious Ziolkowski Memorial Tournament in Warsaw, Poland.
Blaze will have a great opportunity against one of the most decorated freestyle wrestlers in the world when he battles Nolf on Saturday night. At 30 years old, Nolf is 10 years Blaze’s senior and is a two-time U.S. Open champion in freestyle.
Blaze’s former teammate and current assistant coach Matt Ramos has competed twice in RAF, notably wrestling in the first-ever RAF match against Nathan Tomasello at RAF 01 last year.