Colby Covington didn’t just beat Belal Muhammad at RAF 13. He shut him out, silenced him, and walked off the Watsco Center mat with a 10-0 technical fall that felt as ruthless as the build-up had promised.
All that venom from July’s fiery press conference. All the history from their UFC days without ever actually sharing a cage. On Friday night in Miami, it finally boiled over — but only one man imposed himself when it mattered.
Covington crushes the grudge
From the opening whistle, Covington wrestled like a man with receipts to cash.
The reigning RAF cruiserweight crossover champion stalked center mat, snapped hard on Muhammad’s head, and delivered one of the sequences of the night: a tight front headlock, a sharp adjustment, then a slick four-point throw that dumped Muhammad and ripped the air out of any early resistance. It came early in the first period, but it set the tone for everything that followed.
Muhammad, the former UFC welterweight champion, had flashes of solid defense. He fought hands, circled, tried to stay off his back. It only delayed the inevitable.
Covington kept pressing. Gut wrenches. A clean go-behind. Constant pressure that forced Muhammad to react instead of attack. The scoreboard crept to 9-0, and the only real drama left was how the shutout would be sealed.
The answer came in the most anticlimactic fashion possible: the shot clock.
Put on the 30‑second timer, Muhammad couldn’t find an opening. Time expired, the extra point went on the board, and at 10-0 the technical fall was complete. No scramble. No wild finish. Just a cold, dominant win from a 38-year-old champion who never took a backward step in front of his adopted Florida crowd.
The bad blood? Settled on the scoreboard, if not in the stare-downs.
Chimaev keeps rolling, Burns falls again
If Covington’s performance was clinical, Khamzat Chimaev’s was relentless.
In the co-feature, the former UFC middleweight champion tore through Gilbert Burns for a 15-4 tech fall, beating the Brazilian for the second time more than four years after their bruising MMA clash at UFC 273.
This time, under RAF rules, there was no need for judges. Chimaev, now 3-0 in RAF, had already smashed through Dillon Danis and Tyron Woodley with first-round pins. Burns, making his RAF debut, at least forced him into the second period — but not much further.
Chimaev attacked in waves, racking up points and breaking Burns’ position piece by piece until the gap on the board became insurmountable. No pin, but no doubt either. Another technical fall, another statement.
Speaking to RAF commentator Chael Sonnen after the match, Chimaev made his intentions painfully clear.
“He has the belt and I need to beat the best,” he said, eyes already drifting toward Covington’s cruiserweight crossover title.
Covington’s dominant shutout. Chimaev’s latest demolition. The collision course writes itself.
Blades, Nolf, Pyfer headline stacked undercard
The rest of the 12-match card in Miami delivered its own drama and dominance.
Kennedy Blades — listed on the results as Kennedy Blaydes — kept her women’s middleweight championship with a shutout tech fall over Diana Avsaragova. No drama, no opening, just a champion locking down her division with a comprehensive win.
Joe Pyfer’s RAF debut at light heavyweight crossover was anything but cautious. He bullied Luke Rockhold to a 14-3 technical fall, overpowering the former UFC champion in a one-sided showcase that immediately stamped Pyfer as a problem in this format.
Jason Nolf, by contrast, had to dig. The middleweight champion was pushed to the brink by Julian Ramirez, edging out a 7-6 points win in one of the tightest contests of the night. No runaway score, no early stoppage — just a champion surviving a serious challenge to keep his belt.
There were razor-thin margins elsewhere too. Arsen Harutyunyan dethroned Austin DeSanto for the bantamweight title with a 6-3 points win, while Timur Bizhoev slipped past Michael Caliendo 5-4 at welterweight and Chance Marsteller outlasted Georgios Kougioumtsidis 8-6 at cruiserweight.
Bryce Meredith and Movlid Khaybulaev produced a wild, high-scoring scrap at welterweight, Meredith prevailing 17-13 in a bout that barely paused for breath. Cayden Henschel handled business in the featherweight crossover championship, beating Johnni DiJulius 7-2 on points, and Jacori Teemer added a 9-6 lightweight win over Haji Aliyev.
The night closed in emphatic fashion at catchweight crossover, with Mugzy flattening Real Tarzann by pinfall to cap a card heavy on finishes and momentum swings.
But when the lights dimmed and the crowd filtered out into the Miami night, one question lingered above everything else:
After Covington’s shutout and Chimaev’s latest mauling, how long can RAF wait before those two finally collide for the cruiserweight crossover crown?
