Real American Freestyle puts elite freestyle wrestlers against active UFC fighters in a format built for action. RAF 12 is their one-year anniversary card and it is the most stacked lineup they have put together. If you follow the UFC, you know most of the names on this card.

Event Details

Event: RAF 12: “Dvalishvili vs. Cejudo 2”
Date: Friday, August 22, 2026
Location: Rocket Arena, Cleveland, Ohio
Start Time: 8:00 PM ET
How to Watch: Fox Nation

Full Card

Main Event: Merab Dvalishvili vs. Henry Cejudo 2 — RAF Crossover Lightweight Championship
Co-Main Event: Jordan Burroughs vs. Sean Brady
Bo Nickal vs. Max McEnelly
Tyron Woodley vs. Joaquin Buckley
Gable Steveson vs. Anthony Cassioppi
Evan Wick vs. Jason Nolf — Middleweight Championship
David Carr vs. Tajmuraz Salkazanov — Welterweight Championship
Kennedy Blades vs. Diana Avsaragova — Women’s Middleweight Championship
Vladimer Khinchegashvili vs. Jesse Mendez
Johnni DiJulius vs. Asu Almabayev
Masanosuke Ono vs. Ben Davino
Kadik vs. Will Lewan

Merab Dvalishvili vs. Henry Cejudo 2

These two have fought three times now across two different formats. Merab won at UFC 298 by unanimous decision in an MMA fight. Then at RAF Georgia, Cejudo built a lead only for Merab to mount a late comeback and take the wrestling match. Now they run it back in Cleveland for the inaugural RAF Crossover Lightweight Championship.

Merab is the current UFC bantamweight champion. Cejudo is a former two-division UFC champion and 2008 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling. He wants the belt and he wants the rematch win. Merab has beaten him in every format they have competed in. That is the whole story going into Friday night.

If you have not seen what RAF wrestling looks like, here is the first fight:

Jordan Burroughs vs. Sean Brady

The Burroughs signing was the biggest news RAF has put out since the promotion launched. He is a six-time World Champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and by most measures the most decorated American freestyle wrestler in history. He has been coaching at his All I See Is Gold Academy in New Jersey and competing at the World Championships level as recently as 2024. Now he is making his RAF debut against a top-six UFC welterweight.

Sean Brady is 19-2 with a UFC main event against Gabriel Bonfim booked for November 7. He beat Joaquin Buckley by decision in May and has built his UFC career on being one of the better grapplers in the welterweight division. When Burroughs signed and called out Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan, neither took the fight. Brady did. That tells you something about both of them.

Also Worth Watching

Bo Nickal is 7-0 in the UFC and a three-time NCAA champion. He fights Max McEnelly in a catchweight bout and this is exactly the kind of crossover event that suits his skill set. Gable Steveson, a two-time NCAA champion and Olympic gold medalist, fights Anthony Cassioppi in a heavyweight bout. And Tyron Woodley meets Joaquin Buckley in the cruiserweight slot, which is an interesting matchup given Brady beat Buckley in the UFC just three months ago.