RAF, the American wrestling promotion Real American Freestyle, signed a five-year partnership with Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism and the UAE Wrestling Federation on Monday, 15 September. The deal brings the promotion's Middle East debut to Etihad Arena on 14 November.
Naturalised UAE citizen and former UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev will headline the card, RAF said, with his opponent still to be confirmed. The Abu Dhabi show is RAF's first stop in the Gulf. It follows earlier international events in Tbilisi and Moscow, and comes soon after the promotion marked its own one-year anniversary with a card in Cleveland.
Gulf News reported that the supporting bill already draws from the sport's Olympic and world ranks, naming Arman Tsarukyan, Henry Cejudo, Jordan Burroughs, Kyle Snyder and Abdulrashid Sadulaev as attached wrestlers. Organisers said the full card and broadcast details would follow closer to the event.
RAF chief executive and co-founder Chad Bronstein called Abu Dhabi one of the premier destinations for combat sports and said the promotion's aim has been to take RAF into major sports markets. Sheikh Hamdan bin Saeed bin Tahnoon, secretary general of the UAE Wrestling Federation, described the partnership as an important step for wrestling's growth in the country.
Freestyle wrestling now has an actual five-year plan behind it here, rather than a line at the bottom of a press release.
The five-year term runs through Etihad Arena, and 14 November marks the first event under it, not a one-off show. Ticket registration is open through VisitAbuDhabi.ae, organisers said, with seating and pricing details published on that platform.
The Abu Dhabi date is also a homecoming of sorts for Chimaev. The former UFC middleweight champion and naturalised UAE citizen now headlines a promotion staging its first show in the country he represents. RAF is still a young promotion by combat-sports standards, which makes the five-year Abu Dhabi term the real news under the debut date. A single November card can be a showcase. A multi-year deal with DCT and the UAE Wrestling Federation is an attempt to plant a recurring freestyle calendar in the emirate.
Pricing was not listed in the initial announcement beyond the VisitAbuDhabi.ae registration page. Anyone planning to attend should treat seating and ticket tiers as TBA until that page publishes them, and watch for the full card closer to 14 November.