Two former UFC title holders will face off on the wrestling mats.
Promotional officials confirmed to MMA Fighting that former UFC interim welterweight champion Colby Covington is set to face former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold in the main event of RAF 5. The event takes place Jan. 10 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Fla., and streams exclusively on FOX Nation.
Covington, a 17-fight UFC veteran, returns to action after missing all of 2025. āChaosā last competed in the combat sports world in a short notice main event bout against Joaquin Buckley at UFC Tampa in December 2024, losing via doctorās stoppage TKO in the third round. Covington has competed just five times since December 2019, losing three championship bouts to Kamaru Usman on two separate occasions, as well as Leon Edwards, while picking up decision wins over Tyron Woodley and Jorge Masvidal.
Rockhold heads to the wrestling mats after suffering a brutal knockout loss to Darren Till in a boxing match at Misfits 22 in August.
In addition to the Covington vs. Rockhold matchup, RAF 5 features a cruiserweight championship as Kyle Dake will face the winner of the upcoming RAF 4 matchup between Russian-Belarusian Olympian Mahamedkhabib Kadzimahamedau and Oklahoma State wrestling standout Dustin Plott.
wellā¦
i do not mind old guys wrestling each other, but rockhold has little to no wrestling background at allā¦
i have to assume that RAF is showing some sort of upside to putting on recycled MMA guys on their cards, so, i am not going to hate on itā¦
with that being said, this match has absolutely no real interest to go along with itā¦
Covington should tech him.
if he doesnāt he should cut his own head offā¦
i had heard something about a plott match was posted and then taken down a couple of days agoā¦
Kadzimahamedau should run straight through plott who has some of the worst defense i have ever personally witnessed in freeā¦
Itās still posted.
for those who are not aware, Kadzimahamedau teched dake 11-0 at the ā21 Tokyo olympicsā¦
He signed with Bellator but then they folded so heās probably stuck in contract purgatory.
i am trying to think if i knew that or notā¦
once you mention it it does ring a bellā¦
he has some results at some ranking series and euros within the last couple of years, but, has not been able to duplicate his ā21 performance at worlds or the ā24 olympicsā¦
regardless, he is legitā¦
Somehow Luke will end up getting KOād
Similar to BKFC having a roster full of UFC washouts.
Good way to pad these cards and hopefully generate enough interest that MMA fans keep watching.
I like the concept of RAF but as Flow Wrestling showed with their special events, there is a fairly limited pool of marketable, known quantities in amateur wrestling that you can build shows around, let alone a whole promotion.
This match-up is odd since I donāt think anyone has ever marveled at Rockholdās TD prowess, but who knows maybe heāll surprise us! (he wonāt)
Can they both just fuck off already?! Fuck
i think it it is a much more natural progression for ex-MMA guys who still have to hustle to make ends meet to get into BKFC, but, i donāt disagree with the overall pointā¦
and yes, this matchup is very odd because rockhold has no wrestling background at all and colby was a JUCO champ and a multiple time AAā¦ not a punk at allā¦
RAF is a much more progressive and forward thinking org than floā¦ they have shown they have enough financial backing to convince international wrestlers who are still actually competitive to come over and competeā¦
FLO doesnāt have anywhere near that capabilityā¦ they have tried several times to put on stand alone events and they were not able to get anywhere near the kind of matchups that RAF is putting togetherā¦ yes, they got Ono once but he was already training in happy valley so it just made sense for him to show up and beat Leeā¦