{"id":411307,"date":"2026-01-15T16:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T16:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/411307\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T16:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T16:48:10","slug":"abdulrashid-sadulaev-signs-exclusive-deal-with-real-american-freestyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/411307\/","title":{"rendered":"Abdulrashid Sadulaev Signs Exclusive Deal with Real American Freestyle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two-time Olympic gold medalist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmanews.com\/tag\/abdulrashid-sadulaev\" class=\"tag-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Abdulrashid Sadulaev<\/a> has signed an exclusive agreement with Real American Freestyle (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmanews.com\/tag\/raf\" class=\"tag-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RAF<\/a>), the wrestling league confirmed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/raf-wrestling\/466344\/raf-signs-2x-olympic-gold-medalist-abdulrashid-sadulaev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MMA Fighting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sadulaev, widely regarded as the greatest freestyle wrestler of his generation, brings an unprecedented resume to RAF. The 29-year-old Russian captured Olympic gold at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, won six World Championship titles across three different weight classes, and holds a career record of 160-6. <\/p>\n<p>His rivalry with American star Kyle Snyder produced three victories for &#8220;The Russian Tank,&#8221; including their Tokyo 2020 Olympic final showdown.<\/p>\n<p>Sadulaev was barred from competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, making RAF an attractive destination for the decorated wrestler to continue competing at the highest level.<\/p>\n<p>RAF CEO Chad Bronstein called Sadulaev &#8220;one of the most dominant athletes the sport of wrestling has ever produced,&#8221; adding that the signing signals top-tier wrestlers now view RAF as the professional destination.<\/p>\n<p>RAF COO Izzy Martinez echoed the sentiment, stating the promotion is &#8220;professionalizing wrestling at the highest level&#8221; and becoming where the sport&#8217;s future is being shaped.<\/p>\n<p>Real American Freestyle launched in 2025 and broadcasts on Fox Nation. The league features a mix of Olympic wrestlers and MMA crossover athletes including Kyle Snyder, Bo Nickal, Henry Cejudo, and Colby Covington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two-time Olympic gold medalist Abdulrashid Sadulaev has signed an exclusive agreement with Real American Freestyle (RAF), the wrestling&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[173045,49,48,641,638,56859,82],"class_list":["post-411307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-abdulrashid-sadulaev","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-raf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}