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Rivalries involving Colby Covington, Belal Muhammad, Merab Dvalishvili and Henry Cejudo are set to headline the promotion’s next two events. RAF recently announced that Dvalishvili will meet Cejudo in the main event of RAF 12 on Aug. 22 in Cleveland, while Covington will defend his cruiserweight crossover championship against Muhammad at RAF 13 on Sept. 19 in Miami.
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Colby Covington and Belal Muhammad bring UFC rivalry to Real American Freestyle RAF 13
Both Dvalishvili vs. Cejudo and Muhammad vs. Covington will be contested for crossover championships, a division created to allow active and former UFC fighters to compete on the wrestling mats.
Covington became the inaugural cruiserweight crossover champion with a victory over UFC lightweight Arman Tsarukyan at RAF 11 in July. Muhammad confronted Covington during the post-event press conference, igniting a brawl that immediately fueled talk of a showdown between the longtime rivals. While the matchup was initially targeted for RAF 12, promotion officials have now pushed it back to the September event.
Dvalishvili and Cejudo will instead headline RAF 12. Their rematch will crown the inaugural lightweight crossover champion. RAF 12 will also feature a stacked undercard, including Jordan Burroughs vs. Sean Brady, Bo Nickal vs. Max McEnelly and Tyron Woodley vs. Joaquin Buckley.
A catchweight matchup between social media personalities Larry Wheels and Mike Holston, better known as “The Real Tarzann,” has also been added to the RAF 13 lineup.
Championship bouts include Evan Wick vs. Jason Nolf for the RAF middleweight title, David Carr vs. Tajmuraz Salkazanov for the welterweight crown and Kennedy Blades vs. Diana Avsaragova for the women’s middleweight belt. Elsewhere, Gable Steveson faces Anthony Cassioppi, while Vladimer Khinchegashvili, Jesse Mendez, Johnni DiJulius, Asu Almabayev, Masanosuke Ono, Ben Davino and Will Lewan are also scheduled to compete.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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