Colby Covington is the inaugural RAF crossover champion.
On Saturday night in Milwaukee, Covington wrestled Arman Tsarukyan for the inaugural title, and the former Division 1 All-American wrestler showed his chops, edging out Tsarukyan in a hard-fought battle.
Tsarukyan came out pandering to the Wisconsin crowd, rocking a cheese head. Covington was definitely the bigger man in the matchup, but Tsarukyan didn’t care whatsoever about that, taking the fight right to him. Both men locked up, but neither could gain much advantage in these positions, working snap downs and arm drags. At the end of the first, Tsarukyan changed levels for a single-leg, but Covington hit a waist wrap, taking him over for a takedown, and a 3-0 lead, including a shot clock point from earlier in the round.
Covington’s defense remained very stalwart defensively, but in the second round, Tsarukyan got a cleaner single leg and drove through, lifting Covington in the air and getting the takedown when Covington bailed out to avoid the exposure. On the reset, Covington finally shot his own takedown, but Tsarukyan was able to barely keep from giving up points after a fun scramble. But like in the first period, Tsarukyan shot a weak takedown at the end, and Covington sprawled and turned to get two more points.
Heading into the third round, Tsarukyan was down three points, and he wrestled with that sort of urgency, pressing forward and attacking repeatedly. That put Covington in a shot clock violation, but Tsarukyan simply could not break through Covington’s defense to score. He continues to try, but Covington sprawled effectively and never gave him a window, eking out a 5-3 win, and handing Tsarukyan his first loss in RAF.
After the match, Covington was highly complimentary of Tsarukyan, saying he’s going to be the UFC lightweight champion soon. Then he laid out a list of possible opponents for his new title, including Belal Muhammad and Khamzat Chimaev.
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