Merab Dvalishvili has a new opponent for his RAF debut after Henry Cejudo’s injury wiped out their planned wrestling match in April.
Dvalishvili is now booked to face Frankie Edgar at RAF 9 on May 30 in Dallas, with RAFWrestlingUSA confirming the matchup on Instagram. The bout replaces the Cejudo matchup that was supposed to headline RAF 8 before Cejudo was forced out just hours before the match.
Here is the RAFWrestlingUSA confirmation:
RAF 9 is headlined by Olympic gold medalist and recent UFC signee Gable Steveson against Alexandr Romanov. Colby Covington is also scheduled to face former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman in the co-main event.
Dvalishvili last fought on Dec. 6, 2025 at UFC 323, where he lost a unanimous decision to Petr Yan and dropped the UFC bantamweight title. Edgar’s last MMA fight came on Nov. 12, 2022 at UFC 281, where Chris Gutierrez knocked him out in the first round in Edgar’s retirement bout.
Dvalishvili Meets Edgar in a Former UFC Champion vs. Former UFC Champion Matchup
Dvalishvili brings one of the strongest wrestling-based resumes in modern UFC history. The Georgian bantamweight is 21-5 in MMA, a former UFC bantamweight champion, and the first Georgian-born fighter to win a UFC title.
His rise came after a rough UFC start. Dvalishvili lost his first two Octagon appearances against Frankie Saenz and Ricky Simon, then went on a 14-fight UFC winning streak. That run included wins over former champions Jose Aldo, Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo, and Sean O’Malley.
Dvalishvili also owns the UFC record for most takedowns landed, with 119 successful takedowns. Before MMA, he trained in traditional Georgian wrestling, sambo, and judo, then moved to the United States at 21 and joined the Serra-Longo team in New York.
Edgar brings a different kind of wrestling history. The former UFC lightweight champion wrestled at Clarion University, where he was a four-time NCAA Division I national qualifier. His MMA record stands at 24-11-1, and he competed in the UFC at lightweight, featherweight, and bantamweight.
Edgar won the UFC lightweight title by beating B.J. Penn in 2010, defended it in the immediate rematch, and later fought through the famous Gray Maynard series. He also challenged for the UFC featherweight title multiple times after moving down from lightweight.
The matchup makes sense for RAF because both fighters are tied directly to wrestling, not just MMA name value. Dvalishvili is still an active elite fighter with a takedown-heavy style. Edgar is a retired UFC legend with deep NCAA roots and years of championship-level scramble experience.
