{"id":815044,"date":"2026-07-21T20:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T20:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/815044\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T20:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T20:09:09","slug":"raf-exec-gives-update-on-colby-covington-vs-belal-muhammad-match-after-raf-11-post-event-melee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/815044\/","title":{"rendered":"RAF exec gives update on Colby Covington vs. Belal Muhammad match after RAF 11 post-event melee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colby Covington will absolutely face Belal Muhammad in a wrestling match, but it\u2019s just a matter of when.<\/p>\n

Both competitors were victorious this past weekend at RAF 11 over Arman Tsarukyan and Ben Askren, respectively, and the matchup between Covington and Muhammad was made official as the co-main event of RAF 12 in Cleveland for Covington\u2019s newly-won cruiserweight crossover title on Aug. 22. Following the announcement, Muhammad went after Covington<\/a> at the post-event press conference, and security intervened.<\/p>\n

RAF co-founder Chad Bronstein jumped up quickly to help separate the two competitors, and was shocked the situation happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think it was going to happen, no, but I could tell there\u2019s heat happening, right?,\u201d Bronstein told MMA Fighting. \u201cI was right in the middle of it as you saw. I was first, I was right up in the middle of it trying to stop it immediately, but I did not think that was gonna happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought there was gonna be severe trash talk between the two of them. They don\u2019t like each other. But I didn\u2019t think there was gonna be any physicalities that happened, and I was tired from two weeks of traveling, I really wasn\u2019t looking forward to jumping up in the middle of a scuffle, but my intuition made me do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no, I did not expect that. But these two have tons of tension, right? I know both of those guys. I know them personally, I have a great relationship with both of them, and I, truthfully, didn\u2019t think they were going to do that because I also know, as much trash talk they both do, they\u2019re actually both ultimate professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the near-brawl, Covington told Submission Radio<\/a> he was pulling the matchup altogether, but told MMA Fighting that he \u201cmight\u201d move on to another opponent.<\/p>\n

Bronstein says Covington is potentially correct about one aspect, but he will wrestle Muhammad for sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo one\u2026 Colby is an investor, but at the end of the day, Izzy and myself will make the decision for the matches, and he knows that,\u201d Bronstein said. \u201cAnd two, he\u2019s going to wrestle Belal. The question is, is it going to happen in Cleveland, or is it going to happen in Miami? But it will, we\u2019re figuring out right now it\u2019s set for Cleveland, but he\u2019s definitely wrestling Belal.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We\u2019ll probably know in] the next day or so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should Muhammad not be able to compete at RAF 12, Bronstein says Covington will face another top-ranked UFC competitor at the event \u2014 one that likely ensures Muhammad will still be in attendance to watch \u201cChaos\u201d compete before they square off on Sept. 19 at RAF 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cColby will wrestle in Cleveland no matter what,\u201d Bronsten explained. \u201cIf Belal doesn\u2019t wrestle in Cleveland, and he\u2019ll wrestle in Miami, it\u2019s going to be Branden Allen that will step in to compete against Colby in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelal and Brandon Allen are friends, right? So it\u2019s good. \u2026 But right now, Belal is still set. But if he can\u2019t, then it\u2019s going to be Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n

Covington is now 4-0 competing for the promotion, which includes tech fall victories over former UFC middlweweight champ Luke Rockhold, and jiu-jitsu ace Dillon Danis. Covington earned his opportunity to face Tsarukyan for the inaugural crossover title with a win over Chris Weidman at RAF 9 in May.<\/p>\n

Bronstein says that fans looking forward to Covington being an active competitor throughout the rest of 2026 will be excited to know that\u2019s the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cColby wants to compete constantly for his title,\u201d Bronstein said. \u201cHe\u2019s saying that anyone [can] jump in, he\u2019s ready to go. You\u2019ll see Colby pretty active from Cleveland to Miami, to an international show with the main event. There\u2019s a lot of things booked for Colby. We just can\u2019t give you all of the details.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colby Covington will absolutely face Belal Muhammad in a wrestling match, but it\u2019s just a matter of when.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,214253,214254,85,14855],"class_list":["post-815044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-raf-wrestling","tag-raf-wrestling-news","tag-sports","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}