Dvalishvili vs Cejudo 2 Headlines RAF 12 Crossover Title Tonight
Merab Dvalishvili and Henry Cejudo meet for a third time Saturday, with Dvalishvili vs Cejudo 2 headlining Real American Freestyle 12 for the lightweight crossover championship. The rematch is set for 8 p.m. ET at Rocket Arena in Cleveland and streams on FOX Nation.
The pairing is more than a novelty booking. Dvalishvili already beat Cejudo in the UFC, then rallied past him on the wrestling mat in Georgia last month, and now both men are wrestling for gold in a promotion built around crossover stars.
Their first meeting came at UFC 298 in February 2024, when Dvalishvili won a unanimous decision and spent long stretches controlling the former two-division champion. They ran it back under RAF rules on July 11 in Tbilisi, where Cejudo jumped ahead early before Dvalishvili stormed back to win 11-8 in front of his home crowd.
That comeback made Dvalishvili 2-0 in RAF. Cejudo is 1-1 after a debut win over Urijah Faber and the loss in Georgia.
Saturday’s bout is billed as a lightweight crossover championship match, a title reserved for MMA names competing under RAF’s freestyle rules. A win would give Dvalishvili the belt and a 2-0 wrestling edge over an Olympic gold medalist he has now beaten in two sports.
The headliner replaced Colby Covington vs. Belal Muhammad, which was moved to RAF 13 on Sept. 19 in Miami. RAF is using the Cleveland date as a first-year anniversary show in the city that hosted the promotion’s debut.
Dvalishvili remains the UFC’s No. 1 ranked bantamweight and a former 135-pound champion. He is already booked for a trilogy with Petr Yan at UFC 333 on Oct. 24 in Abu Dhabi, making this a wrestling detour rather than a change in his MMA path.
Cejudo, 39, is a 2008 Olympic champion and former UFC flyweight and bantamweight titleholder. The Cleveland match gives him a chance to even the RAF series before Dvalishvili returns to the Octagon.
The co-main event is a cruiserweight clash between Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs and UFC welterweight Sean Brady. Burroughs, 38, represents All I See Is Gold Academy, while Brady comes in from Philadelphia in one of the card’s clearest wrestler-versus-MMA matchups.
Two more championship bouts sit in the middle of the lineup. Evan Wick meets Jason Nolf for middleweight gold, and David Carr defends the welterweight title against Tajmuraz Salkazanov in a rivalry that has already gone multiple meetings.
Kennedy Blades was originally expected to defend her women’s middleweight title against Diana Avsaragova. After weigh-ins, RAF confirmed a late change, and the 2024 national champion Reese Larramendy steps in opposite Blades at women’s catchweight.
Olympic heavyweight Gable Steveson faces Anthony Cassioppi in a Big Ten reunion. Bo Nickal, the 30-year-old UFC middleweight, takes a short-turnaround match against 21-year-old NCAA champion Max McEnelly at light heavyweight.
Former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley meets Joaquin Buckley at cruiserweight. UFC flyweight Asu Almabayev appears at featherweight against Ohio’s Johnni DiJulius, another of the night’s MMA-to-mat crossovers.
The rest of the card keeps the international mix. Georgia’s Vladimer Khinchegashvili, an Olympic champion, wrestles Jesse Mendez at featherweight, Kadik meets Will Lewan at middleweight, and Japan’s Masanosuke Ono faces Ben Davino at bantamweight.
The Dvalishvili vs Cejudo 2 rematch is the centerpiece of that stacked anniversary lineup. It also tests whether Dvalishvili’s pace can erase Cejudo’s wrestling pedigree a second time, this time with a title on the line and no home crowd in Tbilisi to carry him.
Cleveland’s Rocket Arena doors are tied to an 8 p.m. ET start on FOX Nation. For Dvalishvili, the immediate assignment is Cejudo on the mat, with the UFC bantamweight title picture waiting in Abu Dhabi this fall.