Colby Covington Dominates Belal Muhammad at RAF 13
Colby Covington didn’t just beat Belal Muhammad at RAF 13. He shut him out, silenced him, and walked off the Watsco Center mat in Miami with a 10-0 technical fall that felt as ruthless as the buildup had promised.
All that venom from July’s heated RAF press conference, all the jabs and callouts between a former UFC welterweight champion and the loudest man in his adopted home state — and only one of them turned up when it mattered.
Covington crushes the grudge
From the opening whistle, Covington wrestled like a man intent on ending an argument, not starting one. The reigning RAF cruiserweight crossover champion pressed forward, dug in ties, and snapped Muhammad to the mat with a front headlock that turned into one of the night’s standout moments.
In a flash, Muhammad was airborne. Covington converted the position into a slick four-point throw, a thunderclap of a move that set the tone and yanked the crowd fully onto his side.
Muhammad had pockets of resistance. He defended enough to avoid getting steamrolled early, fought hands, tried to slow the pace. It didn’t change the direction of the match.
Covington kept layering on points. Gut wrenches. A clean go-behind. Relentless pressure. By the time Muhammad was put on the 30-second shot clock, the score already read 9-0. He couldn’t find a way in. Couldn’t even nick a consolation point.
When the timer expired, the extra point sealed the technical fall. 10-0. No drama, no scramble at the end, just a cold, clinical finish from a 38-year-old who looked nowhere near the end of his competitive edge.
The bad blood never boiled. Covington never allowed it to.
Chimaev rolls, rematch tease ignites
If Covington’s win shut one door, Khamzat Chimaev’s performance kicked another wide open.
Earlier on the main card, Chimaev ran through Gilbert Burns 15-4 in a catchweight crossover bout, a dominant technical fall that echoed, but didn’t repeat, their brutal MMA war at UFC 273 more than four years ago.
This time under RAF rules, the former UFC middleweight champion showed the same suffocating intensity that has defined his crossover run. Chimaev, now 3-0 in RAF, had already pinned Dillon Danis and Tyron Woodley in the first round in his previous outings. Burns, making his RAF debut, at least avoided the pin — but not the beating.
Chimaev pulled away in the second period, racking up points until the tech fall came, another lopsided result on a résumé that’s starting to look ominous for anyone holding gold.
Speaking to RAF commentator Chael Sonnen after the match, Chimaev didn’t bother dancing around his intentions. He pointed straight at Covington’s cruiserweight crossover belt.
“He has the belt and I need to beat the best,” Chimaev said.
With Covington dismantling Muhammad and Chimaev dispatching Burns for a second time, the collision course is obvious. One man with the title, the other with a growing aura of inevitability.
Blades, Pyfer and Nolf add to a wild card
The rest of the 12-match card delivered its own stories.
Kennedy Blades, one of the brightest stars in the women’s game, shut out Diana Avsaragova to retain her women’s middleweight title via technical fall. It was dominant, controlled, and never in doubt.
Joe Pyfer announced himself in RAF style. In a light heavyweight crossover bout, he manhandled former UFC champion Luke Rockhold, storming to a 14-3 tech fall in a debut that looked less like an introduction and more like a warning.
Jason Nolf had no such comfort. The middleweight champion had to scrap for every inch in a tense 7-6 points win over Julian Ramirez, pushed right to the brink before hanging on to his title.
Elsewhere on the main card, Arsen Harutyunyan ripped the bantamweight belt from Austin DeSanto with a 6-3 points win, while Timur Bizhoev edged Michael Caliendo 5-4 at welterweight. Chance Marsteller outlasted Georgios Kougioumtsidis 8-6 at cruiserweight, and Bryce Meredith survived a wild 17-13 shootout against Movlid Khaybulaev at welterweight.
Cayden Henschel claimed the featherweight crossover championship with a composed 7-2 win over Johnni DiJulius, Jacori Teemer beat Haji Aliyev 9-6 at lightweight, and Mugzy closed the night with the only pinfall on the card, flattening Real Tarzann in their catchweight crossover bout.
Covington–Chimaev: the showdown RAF can’t ignore
By the time the lights dimmed in Miami, the narrative was already written on the mat.
Covington, now 5-0 in RAF, owns the cruiserweight crossover division and just blanked a former UFC champion without giving up a single point. Chimaev, 3-0, has sliced through three opponents with a combined record of 0-3 against him and is openly calling for the belt.
One man thrives on volume and pace, the other on violence and momentum. Both know how to sell a fight. Both now have the results to back up the noise.
RAF 13 settled a grudge. It might have just set up something even bigger.
