Khamzat Chimaev Mauls Robbie Lawler at RAF 14, Calls Out Colby Covington

Khamzat Chimaev didn't need the full period. At RAF 14 on Friday, he piled up a 10-0 lead on former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler and closed the show with roughly 20 seconds still on the clock. Another UFC name, another one-sided result — this time on the wrestling mat rather than in the cage.

The pace was immediate. Chimaev scored a takedown to open, then after a restart dragged Lawler down again and locked up a gut wrench to spin out an 8-0 cushion. One more attack produced a two-point score to push it to 10-0, and that was the match. Lawler, a Hall of Famer with nothing left to prove in MMA, simply had no counter to the speed.

A Résumé Built on UFC Scalps

Beating Lawler on the mat isn't the same as beating him in a five-round brawl, obviously. But the pattern is the point. Chimaev keeps lining up recognizable UFC names and dispatching them in a hurry, and the crossover grappling circuit has become a showcase for exactly that kind of dominance.

Lawler, for his part, has been a staple of the welterweight division for the better part of two decades. The grappling format strips away the thing that made him dangerous — his hands — and leaves a matchup that was always going to favor a wrestler of Chimaev's caliber.

The Covington Grudge

Chimaev wasted no time pointing to his next assignment. In three weeks he headlines a RAF crossover championship bout in Abu Dhabi against Colby Covington, and he made his intentions plain, saying he's glad to finally get his hands on him and promising to break his neck.

Covington arrives on a rough stretch. The former interim welterweight champion is 17-5 (3 KO, 5 SUB) and dropping, most recently losing to Joaquin Buckley via third-round doctor's stoppage. He's currently unranked at welterweight and has leaned hard into crossover events — he even topped RAF's inaugural pound-for-pound list earlier this month.

That ranking matters for the framing. RAF has positioned Covington above both Chimaev and Arman Tsarukyan on its first crossover board, which gives the Abu Dhabi main event an actual stakes hook rather than a straight grudge match.

Tempers Already Boiling

The week didn't need any help on the drama front. A near-riot broke out at Thursday's press conference between Chimaev's teammate Arman Tsarukyan and Dillon Danis, and Chimaev addressed it bluntly afterward, saying he's ready for anything and that if Tsarukyan wants to finish Danis, they'll finish him.

Tsarukyan is the real wild card in that mix. The UFC's #2 lightweight is 24-3 (10 KO, 6 SUB) and coming off a first-round knockout of Mauricio Ruffy — a genuinely elite talent moonlighting on the mats. Whatever comes of the Danis beef, Tsarukyan brings more credibility to the RAF banner than most.

What Comes Next

For Chimaev, the path is set: Covington in Abu Dhabi, and a chance to grab a crossover title while settling a personal score. Given how little Lawler was able to offer, he'll walk in as a heavy favorite against a man who's lost three of his last appearances and hasn't looked sharp in some time.

For Lawler, this reads as a one-off in a format that was never his. The bigger story is Chimaev's momentum — and whether RAF can turn a wrestling circuit full of UFC names into something more than a high-profile sideshow. Three weeks from now in Abu Dhabi, we'll get the next data point.