{"id":613816,"date":"2026-04-19T05:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/613816\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T05:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:11:08","slug":"khamzat-chimaev-signs-with-raf-ahead-of-ufc-328","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/613816\/","title":{"rendered":"Khamzat Chimaev signs with RAF ahead of UFC 328"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cBorz\u201d is taking his talents back to the mats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">During <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ncaa-wrestling-news-and-results\/437627\/raf-08-tsarukyan-vs-faber-live-discussion-results-and-highlights\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RAF 08<\/a> tonight (Sat., April 18, 2026) inside Liacouras Center at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/latest-news\/437605\/freak-injury-takes-henry-cejudo-out-of-raf08-match-with-merab-dvalishvili\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Real American Freestyle (RAF)<\/a> announced that current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev has officially signed with the promotion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Chimaev\u2019s debut opponent \u2014 and the specific event he\u2019ll compete on \u2014 will be revealed in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The timing is interesting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Check out the announcement below:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">After relocating to Sweden, he developed his game at clubs like BK Athen and quickly turned into a national force. Chimaev captured three straight Swedish Freestyle National Championships \u2014 winning gold at 86kg in 2016 and 2017 before moving up to claim the 92kg title in 2018.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">And he didn\u2019t just win, he dominated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Across those three tournaments, Chimaev went a perfect 12-0 with a combined score of 105-2, racking up seven technical falls and three pins. The suffocating, mauling style fans see in MMA today was already fully formed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Wrestling may be his foundation, but Chimaev also sharpened his skills in judo and combat sambo during his rise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Now, with RAF adding one of the most dominant grapplers in MMA, Chimaev\u2019s opponent possibilities get very interesting \u2014 whether it\u2019s fellow UFC names crossing over or high-level NCAA champions<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">For the latest wrestling-related news and notes click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ncaa-wrestling-news-and-results\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBorz\u201d is taking his talents back to the mats. During RAF 08 tonight (Sat., April 18, 2026) inside&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,128793,82,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-613816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-ncaa-wrestling-news-and-results","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613816","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=613816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}