Merab Dvalishvili vs. Henry Cejudo RAF 8 headliner scrapped hours before event

There’s a new main event for RAF 8.

Henry Cejudo suffered an undisclosed injury that forced him out of his scheduled headliner for Saturday night’s event at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia against Merab Dvalishvili, according to RAF co-founder Chad Bronstein. The matchup has been officially cancelled, and Dvalishvili will not compete at the event.

With the change, the matchup between top UFC lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan and former WEC champ Urijah Faber gets promoted to the main event slot, and the light heavyweight title match between Kyle Snyder and Rizabek Aitmukhan shifts to the co-main event slot.

Cejudo and Dvalishvili both appeared at Friday’s RAF 8 pre-event press conference in Philadelphia to hype up their match — which is a rematch from their UFC 298 bout that saw Dvalishvili earn a decision victory in February 2024. Cejudo retired from MMA competition following a decision loss to Payton Talbott at UFC 323 this past December. “Triple C” had a successful RAF debut, defeating Faber via tech fall at RAF 6 in February.

RAF 8 kicks off at 8 p.m. ET, streaming exclusively on FOX Nation.

Check out the updated RAF 8 lineup below.

Arman Tsarukyan vs. Urijah Faber

Kyle Snyder vs Rizabek Aitmukhan

Zahid Valencia vs. Aeoden Sinclair

Anthony Cassioppi vs. Shamil Sharipov

Helen Maroulis vs. Alexis Janiak

Real Woods vs. Anthony Ashnault

Jason Nolf vs. Joey Blaze

Vladimer Khinchegashvili vs. Johnni DiJulius

Lance Palmer vs. Cayden Henschel

Jordan Oliver vs. Mike Vanbrill

Darian Cruz vs. Lucas Byrd