Henry Cejudo Wrestles Former WEC Champion; UFC Castout also set for RAF 6

The Real American Freestyle wrestling promotion is making some big moves involving several former Ultimate Fighting Championship talents.News broke on Tuesday that Henry Cejudo, who recently retired from MMA competition, plans to don his singlet again to wrestle in the RAF promotion. His opponent was not yet announced at the time, but the organization was announced on Friday issued
the name of his opponent for the Feb. 28 show at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Arizona: Urijah Faber, at 155 pounds.

Swimming in the same circles, the two old 135ers shared many opponents, but never faced each other. The 2008 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling left MMA in December after his fourth straight loss, falling short on the scorecards to Payton Talbott at UFC 323. Before his struggles, “Triple C” was one of the few two-division champions in the company’s 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’ has been briefly associated with the ill-fated Global Fight League promotion, and has dabbled in multiple combat jiu-jitsu and wrestling appearances, including a one-off appearance at the Abu Dhabi Extreme Championship in 2024.

Trying to get back to good grace

In addition to the headlined Cejudo-Faber bout, the RAF announced another bout on Friday in the Feb. 28 lineup. Weighing in at 145 pounds, ex-UFC flyweight and ranked fighter Muhammad Mokaev will set foot on the RAF mat. He will wrestle three-time DI-AA wrestler and current Professional Fighters League competitor Bryce Meredith.Despite winning all seven appearances inside the Octagon, including four submissions (he still holds the third spot at flyweight for most landed), the UFC released Mokaev following his testy affair with Manel Kape in 2024. The UFC brass explained that Mokaev’s contract was not renewed for reasons outside the cage that were not limited to negotiating issues.

Wyoming’s Meredith saw his undefeated MMA record come to a screeching halt when Lazaro Dayron knocked him out at PFL 10 in August. Leading up to that bout, Meredith had won all seven of his professional appearances, all of which came within the Legacy Fighting Alliance, Bellator MMA and PFL cages. Although he never won a Division I wrestling championship, Meredith medaled as a member of the University of Wyoming squad in 2016, 2017 and 2018.