Drake Riggs Uncrowned Wed, October 7, 2026 at 8:33 PM UTC · 4 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Colby Covington has been on a roll since leaving the UFC.
Come December, it will have been two years since Covington, 38, last fought in MMA. The one-time interim UFC welterweight champion officially retired from the sport this past May, turning his attention fully to freestyle wrestling with Real American Freestyle (RAF), where he's still been taking on plenty of his fellow former and current UFC stars. Next up, Covington faces arguably his most formidable wrestling foe yet : Former UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev on Nov. 14 at RAF Abu Dhabi.
Speaking on Wednesday's edition of "The Ariel Helwani Show," Covington discussed the matchup and why he's not expecting an overly difficult challenge from Chimaev.
"It's not the toughest matchup for me. I know I can break this guy," Covington told Uncrowned. "You'll never see me pulling guard in a fight like he was with [Sean] Strickland. He got taken down by a jiu-jitsu artist in Gilbert Burns. That's never, ever going to happen to me. He just doesn't have that cardio. He's a quitter. I just know I can hang on and get him tired. In six minutes, he can't hang with me on that freestyle wrestling mat."
Covington (5-0 RAF) may not be too concerned with Chimaev (3-0 RAF) as an opponent on the mats, but he isn't overly thrilled about heading to Abu Dhabi. Ideally, "Chaos" wants his future matches to stay in America. He didn't make a fuss about this one when it was presented though, he said, as he wants to continue giving wrestling fans good matches.
If Covington has any concerns, they'd come outside the match itself. Known for his outspoken trash-talking persona, Covington has made plenty of verbal jabs at Chimaev over the years, and the latter historically hasn't been one to let insults slide.
Chimaev and his team infamously broke out into a full-scale brawl with Dillon Danis and his team after Chimaev's quick victory against Danis at RAF 10. Having witnessed the incident firsthand, Covington is prepared for anything.
"With me everywhere, it's unpredictable," Covington said. "'Chaos' is unpredictable, so I don't know what's going to happen. I'm going there to wrestle, but it just so happens I was the best fighter on Earth, and I'm still a great fighter and can beat anybody and hold my own against anybody in the world.
"If there needs to be a fight, I'm always willing to protect myself and defend myself. But I'm going there to win a freestyle wrestling match.
"If he gets chippy because he's mad that he can't beat me at freestyle wrestling, that's his agenda. That's his ego that is going to be hurt. That's up to him. I'm a professional."
Colby Covington has found a second life in combat sports with RAF.
The Danis match was Chimaev's debut on the RAF mats, and he followed it up with quick victories over UFC veterans Tyron Woodley and Gilbert Burns last month.
Covington, meanwhile, capped off his five-match unbeaten streak by defeating top UFC contender Arman Tsarukyan to capture the inaugural RAF crossover cruiserweight championship, then defended it in a 10-0 shutout over ex-UFC champ Belal Muhammad.
Covington vs. Chimaev will be for Covington's title in the 185-pound cruiserweight division, and from what he has seen of Chimaev so far, Covington is unimpressed.
"He's been a weight bully, beating these guys that he's so much bigger than," Covington said. "Competing in the 200-plus weight category against guys that are 170. You heard Gilbert, he's like, 'Oh, I don't want to compete at 200.' So he's getting the undersized guys and just overpowering them.
"We're going to fight at a weight class that makes sense for both of us. I'm not going to give him a huge weight advantage, and I'm going to go out there and break him. He's never fought anybody at my weight or been in a match where a guy's going to be hanging on his head and coming forward the whole time.
"I'm an NCAA All-American," Covington continued. "I'm a different animal than he's ever faced, and on Nov. 14, I'm going to expose him on the Real American Freestyle mat and get my cruiserweight crossover title defended."
Chimaev's recent RAF appearances have come after his first career MMA defeat, in which he dropped the UFC middleweight title to Sean Strickland in May . For Covington, that was a telling performance that, while a notable upset, was unsurprising, he said.
"We've seen that quitter mentality from him in the past," Covington said of Chimaev. "When he was fighting Gilbert [in the UFC], we see that he doesn't really have that dog. When the fight gets tough, and he's not just the hammer anymore, and he becomes the nail, things get tough, and he's not a good adversity fighter.
"It was so expected [for him to lose to Strickland]. I knew Sean was going to give him fits in the wrestling department and stand up on his takedowns. Get his arms filled up with blood so he'd have to strike and be tired in the striking exchanges. He was pulling guard in the second round. I thought you were supposed to be some crazy good grappler? Why would you ever accept the mat?"
Source: Sport
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