By Chiranjit Ojha
Aug 21 (Reuters) – Jordan Burroughs thought he had stepped off the mat for the last time when he retired after the 2024 world championships, but the Olympic gold medallist never lost his desire to compete and when a new professional promotion came calling the American knew it was time to dust off the singlet.
The 38-year-old, who won gold at the 2012 London Olympics, will return to competition in Cleveland on Saturday with Real American Freestyle (RAF), which was launched last year with the aim of giving wrestlers the chance to earn money from the sport.
And for Burroughs, it also offers him the chance to get in shape for a tilt at making the U.S. team for a home Olympics at Los Angeles in 2028, a dream which he acknowledges is a long shot.
“There’s an element of national pride that comes alongside with competing at home,” the six-times world champion told Reuters in a video call.
“So yes, there is a part of me that would like to potentially try again. But I’d also be 40-years-old in 2028.
“I’m up against some Herculean odds. But if there’s anyone that can do it, I believe I’m capable of doing something that crazy.”
‘TRUE PROFESSIONALS’
Burroughs also hopes his competitive return will serve as an example for the students at his youth wrestling club in New Jersey, where he has been training daily for the last two months for two matches in successive RAF events.
“I feel like the best way to create a vision for someone is to show them,” he added.
After facing Sean Brady on Saturday, Burroughs will take on former world champion Magomed Kurbanaliev in Moscow on September 5 in the RAF’s second international event.
It made its international debut in Tbilisi last month in an event where Kyle Snyder pinned fellow former world and Olympic champion Abdulrashid Sadulaev in front of a sold-out crowd.
RAF co-founder and CEO Chad Bronstein said the promotion is also in talks to host events in India, the Middle East, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Japan.
“Wrestling is a very international sport,” Bronstein said.
“We plan on continuing to grow the sport and in order to grow it, that’s where you’ve got to be … we have to be able to bring in athletes from all over.”
Bronstein said the promotion, which has also launched youth tournaments called “RAF Next Gen” alongside its main events, aims to provide a lucrative outlet for wrestlers who were unable to earn compensation under the sport’s traditional amateur structure.
Burroughs said the RAF events had brought public attention to the sport, which has a limited following outside the Olympics and world championships.
“They’re pushing the culture forward,” he said.
“For years, we’ve been considered ‘amateur wrestling’… even at the Olympics and the world championships we’ve been considered amateur wrestlers and it’s just never really sat right with me.
“And now we have an opportunity to call ourselves true professionals.”
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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