Tomasello/Bravo-Young to Take Place on RAF 02 Card

The RAF 02 card is starting to come together as a second bout for the event was released on Wednesday. Bantamweight champion Nathan Tomasello will face a challenge from Mexican Olympian and two-time NCAA champion Roman Bravo-Young.

RAF 02 will take place on October 25th at Penn State’s storied Rec Hall.

It will be a homecoming, of sorts, for Bravo-Young, who starred for the Nittany Lions from 2018-23. Bravo-Young earned NCAA All-American honors on four occasions and was named an NWCA first-team All-American in 2020. In each of his final three seasons, Bravo-Young claimed Big Ten titles. During that span, he also made the NCAA finals each year, winning in 2022 and 2023. Both NCAA titles came at the expense of Oklahoma State’s Daton Fix.

Speaking of Oklahoma State, after graduation, Bravo-Young moved out to Stillwater to train with OSU’s Cowboy RTC and represent Mexico on the international stage. Bravo-Young qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games and was recently in action at the World Championships. In Zagreb, Bravo-Young was a match away from earning a world medal, losing to Armenia’s Arsen Harutyunyan, the same opponent who beat him at the Olympics. At the World Championships, Bravo-Young picked up a win over 2017 NCAA champion Darian Cruz, who was representing Puerto Rico.

Tomasello has the distinction of being the first wrestler to ever win a match (and a belt) in RAF competition. He held off 2023 NCAA runner-up, Matt Ramos, 4-3, to get the win and the bantamweight title.

Tomasello was a 2015 NCAA champion for Ohio State. He got on the NCAA podium four times and never finished lower than third. In each of his four years with the Buckeyes, Tomasello captured a Big Ten championship. Tomasello was also an integral part of the Buckeyes NCAA title-winning squad in 2015.

During his time at Ohio State, Tomasello never lost to a Penn State wrestler and finished with a 100-8 career record.

As of now, the RAF 02 card looks like this:

Bantamweight (135 lbs) - Nathan Tomasello (champ) vs. Roman Bravo-Young

Heavyweight (Unlimited) - Mason Parris vs. Kyle Snyder