Covington accuses Chimaev's team of planning RAF 10 brawl after Danis pin

Colby Covington has accused Khamzat Chimaev’s team of deliberately engineering the post-match brawl at RAF 10 in St. Louis, Missouri on Sunday, after Chimaev defeated Dillon Danis via fall in just 45 seconds in the main event before chaos engulfed the stage.

Covington, who attended the event, told Red Corner MMA that Chimaev’s Chechen supporters appeared to move immediately and with intent once the match ended. “It seemed like the Chechens, they came for that; they rushed the stage right away, they were ready for a fight,” he said. “It shouldn’t have happened and it’s not gonna happen ever again.”

The incident began when Chimaev appeared to kick Danis after the fall was awarded. Supporters from Chimaev’s corner then swarmed the stage in an attempt to confront Danis before security intervened. Covington, despite rewatching the footage, said he could not pinpoint the exact trigger. He speculated that Danis may have locked in a guillotine choke during the wrestling match, prompting Chimaev to retaliate with the kick, though he stopped short of drawing a firm conclusion.

“I was actually just watching the film back now, what caused it and what started it all — I can’t tell,” Covington said. “Maybe Danis had a guillotine, and that’s what started it. But Khamzat pushed him and kicked him at the end. Maybe he was getting guillotined. I can’t tell after rewatching it.”

Covington, who recently departed the UFC to commit full-time to Real American Freestyle wrestling, said the scenes were damaging to the promotion’s ambitions. “We’ve got to be more professional. We’re getting paid to be out there, we’re not freaking thugs, we’re not in the schoolyard. This is a professional sport. We want to build Real American Freestyle into the greatest wrestling promotion in the world. And we just can’t have that.”

The incident casts a shadow over what had been a dominant performance from Chimaev, who needed less than a minute to dispatch Danis on the mat. Whether RAF takes any formal action against those involved in the post-match scenes remains to be seen.