RAF Adds Two Matches to June 13th Card

RAF 10 is starting to come together as the organization released a pair of matches for its June 13th card in St. Louis. A pair of Olympic medalists will clash as Sebastian Rivera takes on Haji Aliyev at the lightweight classification. In the light heavyweight division, former world team member Hayden Zillmer will face Rizabek Aitmukhan.

Rivera was a four-time NCAA All-American wrestling for Northwestern and Rutgers. Rivera finished third in the nation on two occasions and also captured a pair of Big Ten championships. During international competition, Rivera has represented Puerto Rico. In 2023, Rivera made the world finals at 65 kg. A year later, he came home from the Paris Olympics with a bronze medal after a wild win over Mongolia’s Tulga Tumur-Ochir.

His opponent, Aliyev, is no stranger to the Olympic Games himself. He was a three-time Olympian for Azerbaijan and a two-time medalist - taking bronze in 2016 and silver in 2020. Aliyev is also a three-time world champion at 61 kg, winning in 2014, 2015, and 2017. He also captured European Championships at three different weights.

This is the RAF debut for both Aliyev and Rivera.

Zillmer was a 2015 NCAA All-American for North Dakota State, who has gone on to have a long and decorated career on the freestyle circuit. He has three appearances in Final X at three different weights. He suffered losses to world champions J’Den Cox (92 kg) and Kyle Snyder (97 kg), but fought through a tough three-match series to defeat Nick Gwiazdowski to make the 2022 world team at 125 kg.

Zillmer was slated to appear on an earlier RAF card, but his match was scrapped.

Aitmukhan won a Senior world title at 92 kg in 2023 while he was only 19 years old. A year later, he captured gold at the U20 and U23 World Championships. He is also a three-time Asian silver medalist.

In his RAF debut, Aitmukhan was on the wrong end of one of the organization’s most memorable bouts. He held a 6-0 lead on Kyle Snyder in the second period of their RAF 08 bout. Snyder ended up running him down and coming back for a 12-6 victory.

The RAF 10 card now looks like this:

Middleweight: Arman Tsarukyan vs. Tony Ferguson

Lightweight: Aaron Pico vs. Lance Palmer

Lightweight: Sebastian Rivera vs. Haji Aliyev

Light Heavyweight: Hayden Zillmer vs. Rizabek Aitmukhan

Last week, RAF announced a number of very notable signings, a spree that included an announcement of Aliyev’s inking.

The other recent signings include:

Ernazar Akmataliev - 3x world medalist from Kyrgyzstan

Asu Almabayev - flyweight contender in the UFC from Kazakhstan

Yonger Bastida - 2x NCAA All-American and 2026 NCAA finalist

Ben Davino - 2026 NCAA finalist and 2026 Final X participant

Brock Hardy - 4x NCAA All-American

Arsen Harutyunyan - 4x World Medalist and 2x U23 World Champion from Armenia

Rei Higuchi - 2x Olympic medalist (1,2), 2x World Medalist

Kotaro Kiyooka - 2024 Olympic Gold Medalist, 2025 World Silver Medalist

Dauren Kurugliev - 2024 Olympic Bronze Medalist representing Greece

Max McEnelly - 2x NCAA All-American and 2026 NCAA Champion

Magomed Ramazanov - 2024 Olympic Gold Medalist representing Bulgaria

Daichi Takatani - 2024 Olympic Silver Medalist, 2023 World Bronze Medalist