{"id":340309,"date":"2026-05-25T09:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T04:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=340309"},"modified":"2026-05-25T09:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T04:22:14","slug":"colby-covington-predicted-to-tug-out-of-first-match-since-ufc-retirement-going-to-be-an-excuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/25\/colby-covington-predicted-to-tug-out-of-first-match-since-ufc-retirement-going-to-be-an-excuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Colby Covington predicted to tug out of first match since UFC retirement: \u2018Going to be an excuse\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>Chris Weidman will not be confident of Colby Covington making it to the mats next Saturday.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The previous UFC stars are among the many top names set to be in motion on the ninth Real American Freestyle event on May 30.<\/p>\n<p>Weidman will make his debut against Covington on a card that also features Gable Steveson\u2019s first RAF outing, in addition to a clash between Merab Dvalishvili and Frankie Edgar.<\/p>\n<p>However the ex-UFC middleweight champion stays wary about the possibilities of his booked match actually coming to fruition.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"inline-links\">\n<li><strong>LATEST NEWS:<\/strong> UFC joins PFL and MVP in chasing one among the largest winners on the Rousey vs Carano card<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Chris Weidman expresses worry over Colby Covington showing up at RAF 09<\/h2>\n<p>Weidman has not fought since a loss to Pat Downey at Fury Pro Grappling 13 in May 2025. That marked his only outing in any competitive form since leaving the UFC.<\/p>\n<p>In \u2018Chaos\u2019, the UFC Hall of Famer won\u2019t be coming up against an energetic MMA star. Covington recently retired from the game, a choice that got here after he had gone public along with his complaints about missing out on a spot on the UFC White House event.<\/p>\n<p>The previous interim welterweight champion is anticipated to be energetic under the RAF banner moving forward, but Weidman has not been totally convinced that will probably be the case on May 30.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe he must think I\u2019m dead or my body has just taken such a beating, which he\u2019s right about that, 31 surgeries and stuff and I figure he\u2019s attempting to take that true All-American status from me,\u201d Weidman told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/ufc\/490115\/chris-weidman-surprised-colby-covington-called-him-out-im-not-dillon-danis-i-think-im-going-to-crush-him?utm_source=twitter&#038;utm_medium=social&#038;utm_campaign=dhtwitter&#038;utm_content=app.dashsocial.com\/mma-fighting\/library\/media\/676533484\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">MMA Fighting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I\u2019m surprised, too. I\u2019m not Dillon Danis. I\u2019m not Luke Rockhold with regards to wrestling. It\u2019s going to be an enormous step up for him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn element of me was super excited because I believe I\u2019m going to crush him, but then the opposite a part of me is like, I don\u2019t think he\u2019s stepping in there with me,\u201d he continued. \u201cI\u2019m training as if it\u2019s happening but I feel like there\u2019s going to be an excuse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter all on this last RAF, Arman (Tsarukyan) wins and he calls out Colby and he\u2019s like, \u2018Weidman can wait, let\u2019s do that and I\u2019ll beat Arman after which I\u2019ll wrestle Weidman.\u2019 I\u2019m like here he goes. Here he goes, he\u2019s running already.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul class=\"inline-links\">\n<li><strong>LATEST NEWS:<\/strong> Tom Aspinall reacts to friend Rico Verhoeven\u2019s loss to Oleksandr Usyk: \u2018He was absolutely done over\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n<div><\/div><figcaption title=\"LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - DECEMBER 07: Chris Weidman looks on before a 195-pound catchweight bout against Eryk Anders during the UFC 310 event at T-Mobile Arena on December 07, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC)\">Photo by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Covington beat Danis at RAF 07 in March, a few months after making his successful arrival in the brand new wrestling organization against Rockhold.<\/p>\n<p>Weidman believes he&#8217;ll pose a much tougher test for \u2018Chaos\u2019 at RAF 09, which is able to happen on the\u00a0College Park Center\u00a0of\u00a0University of Texas at Arlington.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Weidman will not be confident of Colby Covington making it to the mats next Saturday. The previous UFC stars are among the many top names set to be in motion on the ninth Real American Freestyle event on May 30. Weidman will make his debut against Covington on a card that also features Gable [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":340310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21048],"tags":[8922,8923,16122,2064,1540,2265,2411,3928],"class_list":["post-340309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mma","tag-colby","tag-covington","tag-excuse","tag-match","tag-predicted","tag-pull","tag-retirement","tag-ufc"],"aioseo_notices":[{"message":"The permalink for this post just changed! 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