Kyle Snyder will defend his Real American Freestyle light heavyweight championship against Shamil Erdogan on November 14 at Etihad Arena, MiddleEasy reported, as part of RAF’s Abu Dhabi event. It’s one of 14 matchups on the card as currently listed by Bloody Elbow, and it’s the one with a belt on the line that doesn’t involve a UFC crossover experiment.
Erdogan arrives from the ONE Championship side of things with his ambitions pointed in several directions at once. MiddleEasy recapped an October interview in which he talked about going after three ONE belts, with Tynan and Malykhin both coming up in the conversation. Now he gets a detour through freestyle wrestling rules against one of the most decorated American wrestlers alive, which is a very specific way to spend a November.
Snyder, meanwhile, has Henry Cejudo talking about him in all caps. Cejudo posted a breakdown on X of a Snyder comeback in which he was down four points with 30 seconds left, asking “HOW did Kyle Snyder get the job DONE?” before adding, “We may have to call him the GREATEST of ALL TIME.” Cejudo, an Olympic gold medalist himself, closed the post by plugging his OnlyFans for more wrestling technique, because of course he did.
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The timing of the Snyder booking lines up with RAF making a play for wrestling credibility. MMA Mania reported that the promotion agreed to acquire World of Wrestling, the family-run outfit behind Tulsa Nationals, Reno Worlds and the Kickoff Classic. Snyder is a Tulsa Nationals alum, alongside names like Gable Steveson, Spencer Lee, J’Den Cox, Thomas Gilman, Bo Nickal and Zahid Valencia. “When you’re part of wrestling, you understand what Tulsa means,” RAF CEO and co-founder Chad Bronstein said. That deal lands after critics labeled RAF a hobby shop for bored UFC fighters, and the Abu Dhabi lineup gives both sides of that argument plenty of ammunition.
The rest of RAF Abu Dhabi
Chimaev and Covington headline in a cruiserweight crossover title bout. Arman Tsarukyan meets Neiman Gracie, Zabit Magomedsharipov faces Giga Chikadze, and Umar Nurmagomedov takes on Urijah Faber. Julianna Peña wrestles Diana Avsaragova.
The pure wrestling side runs deep too. Jordan Burroughs faces Azamat Nurykau, Abdulrashid Sadulaev meets Dauren Kurugliev, Kyle Dake goes against Alp Arslan Begenjov, and Valencia wrestles Khidir Saipudinov. Kennedy Blades vs. Bella Mir is also on the card.
The late addition is Merab Dvalishvili vs. Marlon Moraes, a rematch of their September 2021 UFC fight, when Dvalishvili got badly hurt early and came back for a second-round TKO. Dvalishvili comes in on a two-fight MMA skid after back-to-back decision losses to Petr Yan, the latest at UFC 333. RAF announced the matchup on Instagram and noted the event streams on Fox Nation in the U.S. It goes head to head with UFC 334 on the same day.
My take: strip away the celebrity crossovers and Snyder vs. Erdogan is the fight on this card that will matter most to wrestling people. Erdogan talking about collecting ONE belts is fun. Taking a freestyle title off an Olympic champion who apparently erases four-point deficits in the final 30 seconds is a completely different job, and I’d want to see him score first before I believed it. Snyder defends at Etihad Arena on November 14.
