Rivera vs Arujau set as RAF 14 No. 1 contender match
The same Oct 23 card in Las Vegas adds Yonger Bastida against Greg Kerkvliet.
Real American Freestyle announced Sebastian Rivera against Vito Arujau as a number one contender match at RAF 14 on Oct 23 in Las Vegas. RAF billed it as Olympic medalist against World champion, and the winner takes on Real Woods for the RAF featherweight championship. The promotion also added Yonger Bastida against Greg Kerkvliet on the same card, a matchup RAF framed as World medalist versus NCAA champion.
Olympic Medalist Sebastian Rivera and World Champion Vito Arujau face off at #RAF14 OCT 23 in Las Vegas.
That is the second and third bouts locked for the night. Burroughs vs Caliendo was earlier announced for the same Vegas date, and InterMat called RAF 14 an already stacked card before these two were added.
Rivera's last time out
Asked when Rivera last competed, Justin Basch pointed back to RAF 10 in June, where Rivera beat Haji Aliyev. Basch shorthanded the matchup as Seabass taking on Arujau, with the winner getting a shot at Woods for the featherweight belt.
Arujau comes in hot on the freestyle side. He was named USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week after a 13-3 tech fall over Soslan Ramonov, covered in our earlier story.
What it means for the featherweight belt
RAF now has a defined title line at featherweight instead of a champion with no named challenger. Woods sits and waits, and the winner of Rivera vs Arujau gets him. Both halves of the contender match are the kind of name that makes the belt mean something, an Olympic medalist against a World champion.
Bastida vs Kerkvliet is the heavier half of the announcement and has no stated stakes beyond the match itself. RAF did not say whether it carries any title implication.
All of it runs on Fox Nation, per RAF's own posts.
Our take: stacking a contender match on the same night as Burroughs vs Caliendo is RAF treating Oct 23 as its biggest card of the fall rather than spreading the names out.
Watch for
Oct 23 in Las Vegas, with Rivera vs Arujau, Bastida vs Kerkvliet and Burroughs vs Caliendo all on the card.
Whether RAF puts a date on Real Woods defending the featherweight title against the Rivera vs Arujau winner.
He beat Haji Aliyev back at RAF 10 in June.
World Medalist vs NCAA Champion 馃憖