Khamzat Chimaev wants Real American Freestyle to have medical transport on standby if he ever gets Colby Covington on a mat.
“I can finally break his neck. He will need an ambulance to send him back,” Chimaev said, in a clip RAF put out that Championship Rounds shared on X Thursday. The post framed it around a wrestling match between the two at RAF Abu Dhabi. No date has surfaced in the sources, so for now this is trash talk about a fight that is still prospective.
The timing was loud. The same evening, the RAF 14 press conference turned into a brawl involving Dillon Danis, Arman Tsarukyan, Chimaev and members of their teams, according to Red Corner MMA. Ariel Helwani wrote on X that one security guard was bleeding and called it an ugly scene. Chimaev was heard yelling at Danis, “Hey you don’t know who is your daddy btch! I’ll fck you up.”
View post on X
Chimaev has earned the right to talk big in this building. The former UFC middleweight champion (15-1, No. 3 at middleweight in the Knockout Daily rankings) signed with RAF in April and has been running through people. He pinned Danis in 44 seconds at RAF 10 in June, the fastest pin in RAF history. He pinned Tyron Woodley in the first round at RAF Moscow on September 5, then beat Gilbert Burns by technical fall at RAF 13. Before any of that he was a three-time Swedish national freestyle champion.
Covington is a different kind of problem. The former UFC interim welterweight champion (17-5 in MMA, last fight December 2024) is a two-time Pac-10 champion and an NCAA All-American out of Oregon State, and he has been perfect in RAF. He beat Luke Rockhold, Danis, Chris Weidman and Tsarukyan, the last one for the inaugural RAF Cruiserweight Crossover Championship in July, then defended it by second-round technical fall over Belal Muhammad at RAF 13 in September. Yes, another belt with a qualifier in its name. He still has to be beaten for it.
View post on X
Both men are already on a collision course with the same opponents. Both have handled Danis. Covington beat Tsarukyan, and Tsarukyan was in the middle of Thursday’s melee. The matchmaking writes itself.
Chimaev has business first. He’s scheduled to face Robbie Lawler in the RAF 14 co-main event on October 23. If he wins, the ambulance talk stops being a sound bite and becomes a booking question.
View post on X
