Khamzat Chimaev’s second Real American Freestyle appearance is still on, but the organization recently made a surprising venue change with less than 48 hours to go. RAF Moscow was initially set for the VTB Arena in Moscow. Now? Forget it.

Saturday’s event has been shifted to Arena Mytishchi in Moscow Oblast around 20 miles away. As such, the timing is raising plenty of eyebrows, with concerns swirling over potential U.S. sanctions violations.

Real American Freestyle announced the move on Thursday but didn’t explain why. Fans who have already bought tickets are expected to receive instructions from VTB Arena on how to sort out the change, leaving everyone with the same apparent question: What exactly happened?

And the timing here is pretty hard to ignore. The venue switch comes less than three weeks after ESPN reported that holding the event at VTB Arena could potentially violate U.S. sanctions against Russia.

This is where it gets messy: VTB Arena is operated by VTB Arena LLC, which sits under BM-Bank, and BM-Bank is owned by VTB Bank. Both are under U.S. sanctions tied to Russia’s ongoing conflict with Ukraine.

For the unaware, these sanctions prohibit American citizens and corporations from doing business with sanctioned entities unless they obtain the necessary authorization from the US Treasury Department. Two sanctions experts told ESPN that RAF’s agreement to stage an event at VTB Arena could potentially have crossed that line.

Another major concern hangs over all of this: RAF never stated whether it applied for, or received, a US government license that would have allowed it to conduct business with the sanctioned entities. And the VTB Arena mess had already kicked up another headache for RAF.

FOX Nation later told ESPN that it wouldn’t be streaming RAF Moscow, adding another wrinkle to an event that was already dealing with plenty of questions. Whether the sudden move to Arena Mytishchi changes that decision, though, is still anyone’s guess.

FOX Nation later told ESPN that it wouldn’t be streaming RAF Moscow, adding another wrinkle to an event that was already dealing with plenty of questions. It’s unclear whether the abrupt change to Arena Mytishchi will influence that choice.

Chad Bronstein, RAF CEO and co-founder, didn’t address the sanctions controversy while announcing the location change. Instead, he focused on what was truly happening inside the arena: wrestling. Bronstein praised the stacked lineup and made it clear that RAF is ready to roll on Saturday night.

So, despite all of the noise behind the scenes, the RAF’s message is simple: the show is still going on.

“Moscow has been one of the events we’ve been most excited about since we started building RAF,” Bronstein said. “Look at the athletes on this card: Olympic and world champions alongside some of the biggest names in wrestling and combat sports.

“All coming together on one mat. We’re here, we’re ready, and we’re going to put on an incredible show Saturday night.”

The good news for fans? The actual main event isn’t going anywhere. Khamzat Chimaev vs. former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is still locked in for Saturday, meaning the biggest fight on the card survives the venue shake-up.

‘Borz’ is back for his second RAF outing after making his promotional debut earlier this year, while Woodley comes in with some fresh momentum of his own after picking up a win over Joaquin Buckley last month. And judging by their first faceoff, these two already have plenty of bad blood and intensity to work with.

Now, the fight has an extra storyline attached to it. The venue has changed, the broadcast situation is still unknown, and the sanctions controversy isn’t exactly going away. Basically, Khamzat Chimaev vs. Tyron Woodley was already a spicy matchup. RAF just added another layer of chaos to the whole thing.

The rest of the card is staying exactly as planned, with Russian wrestling powerhouse Abdulrashid Sadulaev set to take on Zac Braunagel in the co-main event. There’s plenty more firepower underneath, too. Kyle Snyder will face Akhmed Tazhudinov, while Kyle Dake goes up against Kadik.

Kennedy Blades is also on the card against Vusala Parfianovich. And then you’ve got some seriously recognizable names rounding things out, with Jordan Burroughs and Bo Nickal also set to compete.

So it looks like while the venue may have changed, RAF isn’t exactly scaling things back. The card is still stacked, and all eyes will be on Arena Mytishchi when the action gets underway on Saturday.

It is also worth noting that while the intersection between U.S. foreign policy and combat sports has created problems for fighters and promotions before, Khamzat Chimaev is particularly familiar with how sanctions can affect an athlete’s career.

Khamzat Chimaev has already dealt with the fallout of U.S. sanctions before

Khamzat Chimaev’s well-documented ties to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov also add to the complexity.

Those ties have posed significant problems for ‘Borz’ in the past, notably when traveling to the United States. At one point, visa concerns prevented him from competing on American soil, forcing the former middleweight champion to base himself in the UAE and compete mostly on international cards in Abu Dhabi.

And the Kadyrov fallout goes well beyond Chimaev himself. In December 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Kadyrov and several sports entities linked to him, including the Russian MMA promotion Absolute Championship Akhmat (ACA).

These sanctions caused a major issue for any American fighter, company, or broadcaster trying to do business with the affected entities. U.S. fighters couldn’t work with ACA as nothing had happened, and American networks had to navigate restrictions around broadcasting events tied to the promotion.

ACA eventually had to work around these constraints, investing more substantially in markets outside of the usual Western sports scene. And while RAF Moscow isn’t in the same predicament, at least not yet, the timing of this venue switch makes the comparison hard to ignore.

Just two days before Khamzat Chimaev and Woodley are set to fight, RAF has shifted the entire event away from VTB Arena, which had unexpectedly become the center of the sanctions storm. And for now, that’s where things stand. The controversy is still hanging around; the wrestling continues.

‘Borz’ vs. Woodley remains the headline, and RAF Moscow is set to roll at Arena Mytishchi on September 5.