Dillon Danis Won't Be Banned From RAF After Chimaev Brawl, Exec Says

The RAF 10 main event ended in chaos, but the promotion isn't slamming the door on Dillon Danis. Khamzat Chimaev pinned Danis in St. Louis in June, and the whole thing spilled over into a full-team brawl afterward — yet RAF co-founder Chad Bronstein says there's no ban coming. Both men will be back on the mat.

Bronstein confirmed Danis remains part of the picture, adding that he didn't feel the need to ban him because the promotion physically stepped in to break things up. He said Danis has been respectful behind the scenes and expects to see him compete again eventually. He also stressed that the brawl was something RAF never wants, and that he's already had that conversation with Danis.

The flashpoint came late in the match. Danis appeared to be working a jiu-jitsu choke during the exchange, and once the bout was over, he threw a kick from his back. Chimaev returned fire, and members of both camps flooded the mat. Not a great look for a young wrestling promotion, but not a ban-worthy one either, apparently.

Chimaev's Busy Fall

Chimaev's next assignment is already locked in. He headlines RAF Moscow on Sept. 5 against former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, and Bronstein promised that's just the start. He said Chimaev will wrestle a couple more times before the year is out, calling him a genuine professional and comparing his lone RAF walkout to a reinvented Undertaker entrance — credit to Eric Bischoff's production team on that one.

The RAF Moscow card runs deep with familiar UFC names. Bo Nickal, the 9-1 middleweight prospect who's split evenly between KOs and submissions across his finishes, meets Olympic champion Shirvani Muradov. It's the kind of crossover matchmaking that's defined RAF's short existence — real Olympic pedigree against MMA's freak athletes.

Familiar Faces, New Beefs

The promotion's calendar leans hard on grudges. Merab Dvalishvili and Henry Cejudo are set to run it back at RAF 12 after Cejudo's meltdown at RAF Georgia, and Colby Covington faces long-time rival Belal Muhammad at RAF 13. Both Covington (17-5) and Muhammad (24-6) are coming off UFC losses, which tells you exactly what RAF is selling: name recognition, bad blood, and the promise of another mat that might just boil over.