Zabit Magomedsharipov has signed a four-match deal with Real American Freestyle, the wrestling promotion better known as RAF. He’ll make his debut on its Nov. 14 card in Abu Dhabi against an opponent nobody has named yet.
His manager, Ali Abdelaziz of Dominance MMA, gave the news to MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn on Monday. Sherdog followed with a report calling it a multi-fight deal for a combat sports return. That wording will get a lot of people excited for the wrong reason, so read it carefully. This is a wrestling contract. Nothing in the reporting points to Magomedsharipov stepping back into an MMA cage.
Nolan King of MMA Junkie summed up the reaction on X with five words: “RAF has regained the plot.” Hard to argue. A wrestling league that just booked one of the most-missed fighters of the last decade has earned that much.
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Why people still care
Magomedsharipov is 35 now, and he hasn’t competed in MMA since his UFC run ended in 2019. He left with an 18-1 record and a perfect 6-0 mark inside the Octagon, and the way he won was why people tuned in. Spinning back kicks to the face. Strange angles. Submissions out of scrambles that looked improvised and probably weren’t. When fans argue about the biggest what-ifs in the sport, his name comes up fast, usually in the first few replies.
The reasons he left have never been fully explained. He has pointed to health problems and to other opportunities outside fighting as part of it, and that’s about as far as the public record goes. No farewell tour, no last fight. He was just gone.
He hasn’t disappeared from competition entirely, though. He has popped up in grappling every so often over the last few years, most recently in August at ACBJJ 22, where he beat Youssef Zalal by unanimous decision. So the RAF deal doesn’t come out of nowhere. He’s been staying sharp on the mat, and now somebody is paying him to do it four times.
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What’s next
The Nov. 14 Abu Dhabi card is the date to circle. RAF hasn’t named an opponent, and who it picks matters. A tough, legit freestyle guy tells you RAF wants a real test. A soft landing tells you the booking is about the name on the poster. MMA Junkie’s piece put it nicely: fans probably won’t see the spinning back kick again, but a jumping leg sweep or two is on the table.
My take: anyone hoping this is step one toward a UFC return should let it go. Nothing in Abdelaziz’s announcement hints at that, and Magomedsharipov has been away from MMA since 2019 for reasons he’s mostly kept private. I’ll take what’s here. A guy who went 6-0 in the UFC and then disappeared is getting paid to compete in front of people again, and he chose to answer the bell on his own terms. Book somebody mean for Nov. 14 and let him work.
