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The lightweight contender will face UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber in the co-main event of Real American Freestyle 8 on April 18 in Philadelphia. The promotion announced the match on Wednesday. RAF 8 is headlined by a matchup between Merab Dvalishvili and Henry Cejudo and airs on Fox nation.
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Tsarukyan is coming off a victory over Georgio Poullas at RAF 7 on March 28. The Russian is now 3-0 under the RAF banner, with previous triumphs over Poullas and Lance Palmer. Since submitting Dan Hooker in the UFC Qatar headliner on Nov. 22, “Ahalkalakets” has competed in a number of grappling and wrestling matches in other organizations — including notable matches against the likes of Muhammad Mokaev and Sharabutdin Magomedov in Hype FC. Tsarukyan has seemingly been at odds with the Las Vegas-based promotion since pulling out of a lightweight title bout against Islam Makhachev at UFC 311 in January 2025.
Faber was originally supposed to meet Cayden Henschel at RAF 8, but no reason was given for the change in opponent; Henschel will now face Palmer at the same event. “The California Kid,” whose last Octagon appearance came at UFC 245 in December 2019, has competed periodically in grappling matches since then. He made his RAF debut on Feb. 28, when he lost to Cejudo via technical fall.
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This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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