Khamzat Chimaev and Dillon Danis will both be back on the Real American Freestyle mat despite a brawl taking place in the main event of RAF 10 in June.
Chimaev defeated Danis via pinfall at the event in St. Louis, but Danis appeared to be slapping on a jiu-jitsu choke during the exchange. When the match was over, Danis threw a kick off of his back, Chimaev kicked back, and all hell broke loose with members of both teams swarming the mat.
Following the brawl, RAF co-founder Chad Bronstein provided an update about Danis and when he could return to the promotion.
“Yeah, you’ll see Dillon Danis back in RAF,” Bronstein told MMA Fighting. “I don’t need to ban Dillon because we stepped in. I’ll tell you this about Dillon, [and] I work with Dillon, I’ve worked with Dillon behind the scenes a lot. So has Izzy, and so has our team, and he’s very respectful to everybody in our organization, but we did have to deal with certain things with him.
“But I’m not going to say I’m banning him and that we won’t see him on the stage, because I do think he’ll be back eventually. And, again, for wrestling and everything that he’s done with us, he’s been nothing but respectful in our organization. Now [the brawl] was something we don’t ever want, which he knows, and we’ve had that conversation, but I do think we’ll see Dillon Danis back eventually.”
Chimaev is already booked for his return to RAF return as he faces former UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley in the main event of RAF Moscow on Sept. 5.
For those expecting to see Chimaev more than that, Bronstein says he’ll have quite a bit of wrestling activity before 2026 comes to a close.
“He’s also going to have an active run,” Bronsteain said. “He’ll be wrestling a couple times before the end of the year. …
“I’m excited about it. When he walked out the one time he showed up, it felt like the reinvented Undertaker [walkout]. It’s probably one of the best walkouts I’ve seen and compliments to Eric Bischoff and James and that team when they did that, but it was just unbelievable. So I’m I’m personally excited to watch him join again, because I like watching him wrestle and I like watching him compete and he’s a great professional, so, we’re looking forward to it.”
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