Colby Covington left RAF 11 with a win over Arman Tsarukyan, but he came away convinced the UFC lightweight contender will soon hold gold. Covington said Tsarukyan has the pace and wrestling to unseat new champion Justin Gaethje.
Welterweight Covington defeated Tsarukyan 5-3 in the main event of RAF 11 in Milwaukee to win the inaugural RAF Crossover Cruiserweight Championship. He built a 3-0 lead, then secured a late score from back control in the second period before defending Tsarukyan’s late attempts to close the gap.
The result ended the Armenian-Georgian’s unbeaten RAF run, though it does not alter his MMA record or his standing as one of the leading names at 155 pounds. Covington, a former three-time UFC welterweight title challenger, praised his opponent after the match rather than using the moment for his usual trash talk.
Colby Covington Predicts Arman Tsarukyan Will Be UFC Champion: “I Am So Convinced”
Speaking with Submission Radio, Covington said he had already shared his title prediction with Tsarukyan.
“I literally told him, ‘You are going to be the UFC lightweight champion,’” Covington said. “I am so convinced. I am so convinced, no one is going to be him at lightweight. That is a perfect division.”
Gaethje recently captured the lightweight belt with a TKO win over Ilia Topuria at the UFC White House event. Yet Covington believes the 29-year-old’s skill set is a bad matchup for “The Highlight,” who is now expected to have “Ahalkalakets” looming among the available challengers.
“Justin Gaethje has no chance,” Covington said. “Just the pace, the wrestling. The way he mixes it up with everything, no one is going to stop him right now.”
Tsarukyan has faced a complicated route to a championship opportunity despite remaining near the top of the UFC lightweight rankings. Dana White has said the UFC’s decision to pass on the Armenian-Georgian for title fights involved several factors, including his headbutting Dan Hooker during a faceoff and a prior UFC 300 incident involving a fan.
White confirmed the headbutt was part of the equation, saying, “100 percent, a lot of things have factored in.” Tsarukyan had also been due to challenge then-champion Islam Makhachev before withdrawing shortly before the bout because of a back injury.
Covington did not present his RAF victory as evidence that Tsarukyan cannot succeed in MMA. Instead, he said his own form and urgency made the difference on the wrestling mats.
“I was in peak form last night,” Covington said. “Didn’t matter who was going to be in there, I was going to get my hand raised because I wanted it so bad. It could have been King Kong, it could have been Godzilla. I was going to get my hand raised.”
The RAF loss may prove little more than a detour for Tsarukyan as he waits for clarity at lightweight. Covington’s assessment is direct as the man he beat in a wrestling match remains his pick to beat Gaethje and become UFC champion.
