{"id":38010,"date":"2026-04-27T22:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Merab-Dvalishvili-to-face-exUFC-lightweight-champ-at-RAF-9-200987"},"modified":"2026-04-27T22:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:37:11","slug":"merab-dvalishvili-to-face-ex-ufc-lightweight-champ-at-raf-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/merab-dvalishvili-to-face-ex-ufc-lightweight-champ-at-raf-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Merab Dvalishvili to face ex-UFC lightweight champ at RAF 9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

After his first scheduled Real American Freestyle appearance fell
\nthrough, Merab
\nDvalishvili<\/a> has been booked to face another accomplished former
\n
\nUFC<\/a> champ on May 30.<\/p>\n

The organization announced on Monday that Dvalishvili will face
\nFrankie
\nEdgar<\/a> at RAF 9 on May 30 in Dallas. Dvalishvili was originally
\nsupposed to meet Henry
\nCejudo<\/a> in the RAF 8 headliner before Cejudo suffered an injury
\njust prior to their match. RAF 9 is headlined by a matchup between
\nGable
\nSteveson<\/a> and Alexander
\nRomanov<\/a>, while Colby
\nCovington<\/a> will square off against Chris
\nWeidman<\/a> in the co-main event. The event airs on Fox Nation.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Dvalishvili, who is known for his relentless pace and grappling in
\nthe UFC, relinquished the bantamweight crown to Petr Yan<\/a> in
\nthe UFC 323 headliner this past December. \u201cThe Machine\u201d is expected
\nto be granted a rematch against the Russian champion in the near
\nfuture.<\/p>\n

Edgar wrestled collegiately at Clarion University before
\ntransitioning to an MMA career. In addition to capturing
\nlightweight gold, \u201cThe Answer\u201d also challenged for the 145-pound
\ntitle on three occasions before ending his UFC tenure at
\nbantamweight. Edgar was scheduled to return to combat sports
\nagainst Jimmie
\nRivera<\/a> at BKFC 82 last October but the bout was scrapped after
\nEdgar was
\nnot cleared to compete<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Machine\u2019 vs. \u2018The Answer\u2019<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

READY FOR THIS ONE\ud83d\udcaa<\/p>\n

Merab
\nDvalishvili<\/a> takes on Frankie
\nEdgar<\/a> on May 30 in Dallas.<\/p>\n

Tickets in bio. Stream exclusively on @foxnation<\/a>
\npic.twitter.com\/1wce5Sgb23<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Real American Freestyle (@RAFWrestlingUSA)
\nApril 27, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After his first scheduled Real American Freestyle appearance fell through, Merab Dvalishvili has been booked to face another accomplished former UFC champ on May 30. The organization announced on Monday that Dvalishvili will face Frankie Edgar at RAF 9 on May 30 in Dallas. Dvalishvili was originally supposed to meet Henry Cejudo in the RAF […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}