{"id":634723,"date":"2026-04-27T19:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T19:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/634723\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T19:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T19:55:08","slug":"merab-dvalishvili-vs-frankie-edgar-booked-for-raf-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/634723\/","title":{"rendered":"Merab Dvalishvili vs. Frankie Edgar booked for RAF 9"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Former UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili has a new opponent for his RAF debut after his previously scheduled matchup against Henry Cejudo was scrapped at the last minute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Originally set as the main event for RAF 8 in April, Dvalishvili got word that Cejudo suffered an injury just hours before the match was set to take place, which forced him off the card. Now Dvalishvili draws another UFC legend with former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar accepting the challenge at RAF 9 on May 30 in Dallas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The card is headlined by recent UFC signee and Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson taking on Alexandr Romanov, while Colby Covington faces former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman in the co-main event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Prior to his UFC career, Edgar was an accomplished wrestler at Clarion University where he was a four-time NCAA qualifier in college. He left wrestling behind when he transitioned full-time into MMA, but stayed close to his roots back home in New Jersey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Edgar was a fixture in the Rutgers wrestling room and also helped coach 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Sebastian Rivera.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Now faces off with Dvalishvili at RAF 9 in a battle of former UFC champions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili has a new opponent for his RAF debut after his previously scheduled&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,214253,214254,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-634723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-raf-wrestling","tag-raf-wrestling-news","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}