When Stephen Buchanan arrived at the University of Iowa for his final year of college eligibility in wrestling, he already has his future mapped out.
He was gunning to win an NCAA championship and then he planned on making an immediate transition into MMA. As a lifelong fan of fighting, Buchanan felt like fighting was just going to be his future but a season spent working under legendary coach Tom Brands gave him new perspective and a reinvigorated passion for the sport of wrestling.
“Once I got to Iowa, it changed,” Buchanan told MMA Fighting. “I was going to be done with wrestling. Got to Iowa and got a new found love for it. From then on, I was going to train for the 2028 Olympics. I started training for that.
“After NCAA’s, Real American Freestyle contacted me and I was like yeah, we can do that. It’s freestyle wrestling, more matches the better and from then on, the mindset and focus is 2028. I want to wrestle in the World Championships and ranking tournaments here and there. Just training freestyle.”
He won the NCAA title at 197 pounds and then in his RAF debut, Buchanan put on an incredibly impressive performance shutting down and shutting out multi-time UFC title challenger and Olympic silver medalist Yoel Romero. Despite being 48 years old, Romero turned back the clock when he torched Pat Downey in his first appearance in RAF but he couldn’t get much of anything done against Buchanan at RAF 5.
The dominant win only further solidified Buchanan’s decision to focus only on wrestling for now but he’s not giving up his fight dreams just yet either.
“It was going to be fighting. It was going to be fighting right off the bat,” Buchanan said. “I was going to finish my college career and then go straight into fighting and then Iowa kind of switched things up. I still kind of have fighting on my radar. I’m really focusing on wrestling, getting a gold medal and then going after something else.
“My plate is filled with the Olympics right now. That’s going to be my biggest goal and after 2028, see what’s left for me. Fighting is still in my mind. I really haven’t had a lot of training in it but we came down a year or two ago and did some training sessions and kind of fell in love with it, also. It’s martial arts. It’s beautiful at its core and I would love to get in the octagon.”
With the Summer Olympics landing in Los Angeles in 2028, there are a lot of American wrestlers hoping to represent the United States on that stage. Buchanan is obviously adding his name to the mix but he’s got a long way to go before he can stand on that podium with a metal around his neck much less even getting the chance to compete there because first things first, he has to be the person earning a spot on the American team.
With plans to compete at 97kgs (213 pounds), Buchanan would potentially have to go through Olympic gold and silver medalist and multi-time World Champion Kyle Snyder, who has held down that weight class for the past three cycles.
Snyder is one of the most accomplished wrestlers in U.S. history and he hasn’t been defeated by an American since dropping one match to Jake Varner back at the 2016 Olympic trials. He went onto beat Varner in the next two matches to punch his ticket to the Olympics where Snyder became the youngest American to ever win gold in wrestling.
In other words, Buchanan has his work cut out for him but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“He’s a great wrestler,” Buchanan said about Snyder. “He was great from when he started up until now. Everyone’s time has to come. I have great respect for him as an athlete and as a person. But when I’m training, I’m training to beat him. I’m training to be the best. Not only him but everyone overseas.
“I’m not training just to be the best American wrestler. I’m training to be the best in the world. He is just an opponent in front of me that I have to beat. However it goes, I can learn, grown and come back. It’s very exciting to be able to look to someone like that and know that’s who I’m going to have to beat to make the team.”
As far as MMA goes, Buchanan definitely isn’t shutting that door, especially with the chance to maybe create some new rivalries with UFC fighters coming to RAF, but he can’t pass up the possibility of competing for Olympic gold on U.S. soil.
“I would love to get in the octagon and maybe do both,” Buchanan said. “Maybe be one of the first RAF wrestlers who are in the UFC and in RAF, keeping my wrestling sharp but then growing and evolving in my striking and jiu-jitsu.
“Olympics are huge but having it right in your backyard. To have friend and family there, not just watch on television, it’s an Olympics you don’t just want to get to — you want to win. You have that memory forever. That’s what I’m pushing for every single day.”
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