Outside Source
On Tuesday, news broke that Henry Cejudo, who recently retired from MMA competition, is planning on slapping back on his singlet to wrestle in the RAF promotion. At the time, his opponent was not announced, but on Friday the organization released the name of his adversary for the Feb. 28 show at the Mullett Arena in Tempe, Arizona: Urijah Faber, at 155 pounds.
While swimming in the same circles, the two longtime 135ers shared many opponents but never faced one another. The 2008 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling left MMA behind in December after his fourth straight loss, falling short on the scorecards to Payton Talbott at UFC 323. Before his struggles, “Triple C” served as one of the few two-division champs in company history, as the only man to do so at 125 and 135 pounds.
Faber, 46, has not set foot in a cage as a competitor since Petr Yan knocked him out at UFC 245 in 2019. Since then, “The California Kid” was briefly linked to the ill-fated Global Fight League promotion, and he has dabbled in grappling with multiple combat jiu-jitsu and wresting appearances including a one-off at Abu Dhabi Extreme Championship in 2024.
Trying to Return to Good Graces
In addition to the headlining Cejudo-Faber match, RAF announced on Friday another bout on its Feb. 28 lineup. At 145 pounds, ex-UFC flyweight and ranked combatant Muhammad Mokaev will be setting foot on the RAF mat. He will grapple with three-time DI-AA wrestler and current Professional Fighters League competitor Bryce Meredith.
Despite winning all seven of his appearances in the Octagon, including four submissions—he still holds the No. 3 spot at flyweight for the most landed—the UFC cut loose Mokaev after his grinding affair with Manel Kape in 2024. The UFC brass explained that Mokaev’s contract was not renewed due to reasons outside of the cage not limited to negotiation issues.
Wyoming’s Meredith saw his undefeated MMA record come to a crashing halt when Lazaro Dayron knocked him out at PFL 10 in August. Leading up to that match, Meredith had won all seven of his pro outings, all of which contained within the Legacy Fighting Alliance, Bellator MMA and PFL cages. While he never won a Division I wrestling championship, Meredith medaled in 2016, 2017 and 2018 as a member of the University of Wyoming squad.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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