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Henry Cejudo returned to his wrestling roots with a shutout victory over Urijah Faber in the RAF 6 main event and then quickly turned his attention to a showdown against old rival Merab Dvalishvili.
While he was an overwhelming favorite to win, Cejudo proved he’s still got plenty of quickness as he repeatedly snatched a slick ankle pick to take Faber down to the ground. While Faber actually displayed solid defense on the mat, he couldn’t produce any offense and just got taken down repeatedly by the 2009 Olympic gold medalist.
Cejudo ended the match with another lightning fast two-point takedown, going up 11-0 for the technical fall victory to beat Faber. Afterwards, Cejudo wasted no time calling out the former UFC bantamweight champion, who was sitting nearby after he was announced as one half of the main event for RAF 7 in April.
“Merab Dvalishvili, you’re next!” Cejudo shouted. “You didn’t beat me, April in Philly, I’m going to spank you, Merab. Sign the contract. I’m going to make you bend the knee!”
Dvalishvili was all smiles as he walked onto the stage and faced off with Cejudo before accepting his challenge.
“I love it. I love the show,” Dvalishvili said. “This is the best wrestling show. I’m not a wrestler but I did take down this gentlemen. I did beat him in his own sport. Now this is wrestling I know it’s a big challenge and I’m ready. Absolutely yes [I accept his challenge] Let’s do it!”
Prior to the faceoff between two former UFC champions, Cejudo first had to dispatch Faber, which he did in dominant fashion.
It was a lot of hand-fighting early but Cejudo took a shot with less than a minute to go in the opening round but Faber was able to resist being turned to prevent more scoring. Cejudo snatched an ankle pick for a low-single leg takedown that put Faber on the mat again to wrap up another two points to go up 5-0 going into the second period.
Cejudo pulled off the same takedown with another low single leg and Faber was desperately scrambling to prevent being pinned. Faber managed to slip free just enough to end up on his stomach and stop a turn, which stalled the action and forced the referee to stand them up again.
That’s when Faber got in deep on his own single leg but Cejudo sprawled out effectively to shut him down for another stall. That left Cejudo up 7-0 going into the final period.
Cejudo opened the third with another slick takedown and then on the restart he snatched another to go up 11-0 to end the match with a technical fall.
It would have been a massive upset for Faber to score a takedown on Cejudo so actually winning the match was probably never going to happen but the UFC Hall of Famer made a good account for himself even if he did lose the match.
As for Cejudo, he signed a three-match deal with RAF and the promotion wasted no time officially booking him against Dvalishvili for the RAF 8 main event on April 18 in Philadelphia.