“King” David Carr already has one UFC champion on his resume and he’s hoping another will answer his call.
A two-time NCAA champion with dreams of wrestling in the 2028 Olympics, the 26-year-old standout from Iowa State put on a dominant performance when he blanked Belal Muhammad in a match back at RAF 4 this past December. Carr racked up 10 points in rapid-fire fashion to earn the tech fall victory but he praised Muhammed for taking a shot — even if he was fighting an uphill battle wearing ice skates.
“A lot of respect goes out to Belal and any of the UFC guys like Arman Tsarukyan, all these guys that are coming in,” Carr told MMA Fighting. “When you get to see these UFC guys go into wrestling, it’s just exciting. For wrestling, for UFC fans and it just grows the sport where you get to see some of your favorite fighters stay active.
“In the UFC, you might only get two fights a year or maybe three and it’s really gruesome on your body. But in wrestling, you can compete, you might get a bloody nose, you might get a scratch here or there but you can be active and not hurt yourself. I think it’s really appealing to all the UFC guys.”
On Saturday, Carr defends his welterweight championship against ex-Bellator and PFL fighter Bubba Jenkins, who was an NCAA champion during his wrestling career as well.
While he’s certainly not looking past that match, Carr admits he has a couple of dream opponents he’d love to face on the RAF mats including the current No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC as well as a former rival and Olympic gold medalist.
“I think that’s a great question,” Carr said. “Dream match, No. 1 match would be Islam [Makhachev]. No. 2 in my dream matchup would be [Zaurbek] Sidakov. I think those two are the ones that excite me the most. If I was to get real excited for it and I think it would be fun for the fans. Those are definitely my dream matches and I hope RAF continues to climb and build and I hope we can see matches like those.”
Sidakov defeated Carr at the 2025 World Championships of wrestling so there’s obviously a revenge factor in mind for that one.
As far as Islam Makhachev goes, Carr just views him as the biggest possible challenge coming out of the UFC, even if he’s not a wildly credentialed wrestler.
To his credit, Makhachev’s based is wrestling and he’s spent plenty of time working with past champions including two-time Olympic gold medalist and recent RAF signee Abdulrashid Sadulaev.
“He has good wrestling. I’ve seen his wrestling,” Carr said about Makhachev. “He has a good base. He has freestyle. I think a lot of those guys, if you’re training in Dagestan or around there, you’re wrestling some of the best guys in the world. If you’re doing OK with those guys, you’re elite. I think those guys are elite.
“This guy in some of his interviews saying ‘me and Jordan Burroughs, that’s a good match.’ I’m like I don’t know. I know Jordan Burroughs and his accomplishments and I’ve trained with him and I don’t know if it would be a good match but that confidence and him wrestling in Dagestan, I think it builds a good match. You don’t know. When there’s curiosity in there, it makes for a good match.”
Carr obviously invites any of the top fighters from the UFC to test him on the mats but what about him potentially crossing over into MMA?
For now, his sole focus remains on wrestling, especially with the Olympics taking place in Los Angeles in 2028 but Carr admits he’s intrigued by the possibility of booking a fight down the road.
“It’s been interesting,” Carr said. “I’ve thought about it more recently than I have in the past. I might do an amateur fight after the World Championships and that’s something I want to train. I’ve done some crosstraining but maybe just do an amateur fight, see how I feel and see how I like it.”
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