RAFWiki

The promotion's named after Real American Beer None of the foreign ventures include the full name - it's just "RAF Georgia", "RAF Moscow", etc. If they renamed the promotion Real Authentic Freestyle you'd still complain

Clearly RAF's Chimaev-Burns fight announcement that was released in English a few hours ago and got picked up by every single Russian news agency was ineffective

He supposedly debuted in MMA this past weekend, but I can't find results for the event:

The last line of defense for both liberal and conservative scolds - calling people they don't like children since they can't win an argument All the real adults watch cable news and vote for the same corrupt politicians over and over

Kinopoisk will exclusively broadcast the RAF freestyle wrestling tournament with Chimaev. On September 5, the Real American Freestyle ( RAF ) wrestling promotion will hold a tournament in Moscow . In the main event of RAF Moscow , UFC fighter Khamzat Chimaev will fight in a catchweight bout against former UFC champion Tyron Woodley. The tournament will be available live and on tape to Plus subscribers in the "Sports" section of the online cinema. The broadcast begins at 7:00 PM Moscow time. The RAF promotion features freestyle wrestling matches between current athletes, leading MMA fighters, and other martial artists. Participants include Olympic and world champions, former and current UFC champions. The Moscow tournament will be the promotion's fourteenth event and the second held outside the United States. In addition to the clash of two former UFC champions, the evening's main event will be the return of Abdulrashid Sadulaev . The two-time Olympic champion and six-time world champion will be competing in the RAF for the second time. In July, Sadulaev lost to Kyle Snyder at RAF Georgia in Tbilisi after sustaining a knee injury. In Moscow, the Russian wrestler will face Zach Braunagel, who has experience competing in international tournaments with the US Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling teams . Braunagel is 1-0 in the RAF , having defeated Pat Downey at the July tournament. The tournament will feature 13 bouts, including three for the organization's championship belts. Light heavyweight champion Kyle Snyder will defend his title against Olympic champion Akhmed Tazhudinov. Two-time Olympic bronze medalist Kyle Dake holds the catchweight title and will challenge Olympic silver medalist Magomedkhabib Kadimagomedov. This bout is a rematch of Dake's 10-7 victory in January. In the women's title fight, Russian Vusala Parfianovich will face American Kennedy Blaydes. The promotion will also feature two more Russian debuts: One FC champion Anatoly Malykhin, who holds three weight classes, will face the experienced Pouya Rahmani. Sharabutdin "Shara Bullet" Magomedov will face off against Nieman Gracie, an MMA fighter from the Gracie clan. One of the most decorated freestyle wrestlers from the United States, Jordan Burroughs (1-0 in RAF ), will face another debutant in the league, 2024 world champion Magomed Kurbanaliev. Tournament card: Khamzat Chimaev vs. Tyron Woodley (main event, catchweight). Abdulrashid Sadulaev vs. Zach Braunagel (light heavyweight). Anatoly Malykhin - Pouya Rahmani (heavyweight). Yusuf Raisov - Marif Piraev (middleweight). Zahid Valencia vs. Ibrahim Kadiev (catchweight). Jordan Burroughs vs. Magomed Kurbanaliev (middleweight). Bo Nickal vs. Shirvani Muradov (light heavyweight). Jason Nolf vs. Ismail Khaniev (catchweight). Vito Arujau - Soslan Ramonov (featherweight). Kyle Snyder vs. Akhmed Tazhudinov (for the light heavyweight title). Sharabutdin Magomedov - Neiman Gracie (catchweight). Kyle Dake vs. Magomedkhabib Kadimagomedov (for the championship title, catchweight). Kennedy Blaydes vs. Vusala Parfianovic (for the middleweight title). In addition to live broadcasts of major competitions, Kinopoisk offers martial arts fans access to current and archived seasons of the fighting reality show The Ultimate Fighter, UFC BJJ grappling tournaments with expert voiceovers from coaches Stanislav Varshavsky and Daud Adaev, as well as the show "Dana White's Contender Series," and the podcast "Hustle Show" by Adam Zubairaev and Tambi Masaev.

Chael Sonnen: "I'm going to Russia next week. I do want to be smart. I'm getting brought over by Putin. I mean the actual government is bringing us over. I'm going for a wrestling event. Wrestlers are treated very different in certain parts of the world. Iran is one of them. Russia is one of them. The government gets involved. I think that we will be just fine."

USA Wrestling responds to Dabir's threat Alireza Dabir, president of Iran's Wrestling Federation, recently warned that if the US, as host of the 2026 U23 World Wrestling Championships, fails to issue a visa to even one member of Iran's team, Iran will not participate in the event. "By denying visas, they're cutting off our teams at the head," Dabir had said. "We have the World Under-23 Championships coming up in October in the US. I've told the president of the international federation that if the US fails to issue a visa to even one team member, we will certainly not send the team. Whether we're there isn't what matters — how we're there is what matters." Responding to a question from ISNA about the Iranian federation's warning, USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender said the organization is working hard to secure visas for all members of Iran's team to attend the World Championships. Citing the US's interest in having Iran's team compete in the event, he stressed: "We very much want all members of Iran's team to be able to participate in this event."

First time for everything.

You remind me a lot of Trevor Woodhouse, aka Rovert - longtime troll of professional wrestling message boards. Guy was banned from every online forum I can think of, and had restraining orders against him from multiple female wrestlers. He'd offer to send them money for "inside info", and if they refused, he'd retaliate by smearing them online while trying to get them fired from their real-life jobs. After years of claiming to be a young and rich European playboy, Trevor died last week. Turns out he was a morbidly obese elderly man in Ireland. Years ago, F4Wrestling/Wrestling Observer Live host Bryan Alvarez "called out" Rovert on their radio show because they decided to ban him from their message board:

Consensus at Flo seems to be that since RAF doesn't give college wrestlers performance contracts (they pay out NIL money for "publicity"), they should be fine But some schools like Oklahoma State are stopping their wrestlers from doing RAF altogether since they don't want to risk BIg 12 (or other conferences) retroactively applying rules to say anyone who's done RAF is no longer an amateur, and has therefore exhausted their college eligibility

A Wordpress blog from 5 years ago Nothing more reliable than that, folks

Burroughs and his RAF 12 opponent Sean Brady were booked on the same flight out of Philadelphia to the show - they exchanged head nods and didn't speak at all the entire flight. They befriended each other after their match, but professionals (and especially rivals/opponents) aren't going to have deep conversations right before a competition.

Take your meds

It's funny how the same people crying "how dare RAF hold an event in Moscow!" fail to make the connection that they're only going there because Sadulaev still can't get his US visa approved. RAF Georgia wouldn't have happened if his visa wasn't being held in eternal limbo. Or, according to the tinfoil hats in this thread - maybe Sadulaev is a secret spy being sent by the Kremlin to damage America diplomacy in the 3 days he'd be in the US for a RAF event! Phew - glad we avoided that close call!

We should ban anyone associated with Penn State from both World and Olympic competition They appear to be politically compromised...

Come inside Iran’s World Cup hotel in Tijuana, Mexico, where fans turn out to cheer Showing up is important, some said, because of what they describe as unfair conditions imposed on the team. After the outbreak of war, the Iranian team was forced to move its base camp from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana. Eleven team officials and staff members did not receive U.S. visas. The U.S. has also denied Iran’s requests to arrive two days before matches — and mandated that the team must leave immediately after the game. “Every little technicality is making it difficult for the team,” says Abbas Eftekhari, who was born in Iran and has lived in the U.S. for more than 40 years. “I think this is going to drain them psychologically and also physically.” Iran’s soccer federation has been vocal about the obstacles, saying it would lodge a complaint with FIFA. “Football shouldn’t lose its power to politics,” Hedayat Mombeini, secretary-general of the Iran Football Federation, said Friday. He added that the restrictions “are certainly having a negative effect on us, but we are trying to overcome these problems with our Iranian pride.”

I was unaware that Colorado seceded from the United States

So if UWW responded by barring Team USA from having coaches at senior Worlds, you'd be cool with that?

Iranian Wrestling Chief Threatens U.S. Boycott Over Visa Denials Sounds like they're mad because their coaches have been denied visas, not the athletes I wonder if that comes into play for the 2028 Olympics - only athletes can get visas, but the coaches have to stay at home Pyles and the Flo crew would still refuse to put asterisks next to the American gold medalists

Composto reminding the world he exists is cool Apparently he signed with CLAW recently

Throwing an olive branch to Conor McGregor's camp to try and get an RAF match from Conor I feel like Mugzy vs. Danis was the match to make: low-skilled wrestler beloved by everyone vs. low-skilled wrestler who everyone hates

RAF gives wrestlers 3-match contracts minimum So you'd rather they buy out his contract and let him sit home instead of trying to make money off his name in a UFC town?

Anyone else watching? Looks like an interesting card

It should be called Real American Folkstyle (the only style that matters), and it should always be fought in a high school gym where you can smoke Pall Malls in the foyer and threaten to beat up the referees (posted from my mother's basement)