The Real American Freestyle (RAF 13) event at the Watsco Center in Miami, Florida, just wrapped up. While both Khamzat Chimaev and Colby Covington won their respective bouts, their performances left fans disgruntled.

The former middleweight champion faced a familiar opponent in Gilbert Burns in the co-main event of RAF 13. In their wrestling match, Chimaev controlled the action for most of the contest, but Burns managed to put four points on the board and make the bout more competitive than many expected. 47 seconds into the second period, ‘Borz,’ with his blast double takedown, slipped past the 10-point mercy rule with a 15-4 score, securing the win by technical fall.

That was a different outing from Chimaev’s previous RAF appearance, when he beat Tyron Woodley in just 94 seconds via pinfall. Burns offered much more resistance against the Chechen, even though the final score was still heavily in the former middleweight champion’s favor.

Immediately after the fight, Khamzat Chimaev used his post-fight speech to call out RAF’s cruiserweight crossover champion, Colby Covington, who was facing Belal Muhammad in the main event.

“He has the belt, and I need to beat the best,” Chimaev said.

Following that callout, Colby Covington had his own business to take care of. The former UFC interim welterweight champion had already raised the stakes for RAF 13 by building a heated rivalry with Muhammad, one that spilled over into a physical altercation a few months ago.

When fight night arrived, it was ‘Chaos’ who controlled the contest from start to finish.

The 38-year-old applied relentless forward pressure and used powerful throws to keep Muhammad from establishing his wrestling. At one point, Covington turned a headlock into a four-point throw before continuing to control the action in front of his home crowd.

In the end, ‘Remember the Name’ failed to score a single point, while Covington walked away with a dominant 10-0 technical-fall victory. The win also allowed ‘Chaos’ to retain his title and extend his win streak in RAF to 5-0.

Covington’s victory also raised the stakes for his upcoming bout against Chimaev in Abu Dhabi, a matchup the Chechen accidentally revealed at the RAF 13 pre-fight press conference.

However, despite both fighters picking up convincing wins, fans had plenty to say about their respective performances.

Fans react to Khamzat Chimaev and Colby Covington’s RAF 13 outings

Chimaev’s performance left some fans unimpressed, particularly because Burns managed to score four points against him. One fan wrote, “They robbed the f–k out of Burns. Nickal would embarrass Khamzat.” Another said, “Damn. Burns scored on him twice. Wasn’t expecting that.” A third echoed the sentiment, “Khamzat got taken down twice by old Gilbert Burns. Bo Nickal would smoke him.”

The reactions showed how surprised some fans were by Burns’ ability to make the contest competitive. The Brazilian is a third-degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and a submission specialist. Although his grappling background differs from freestyle wrestling, his years of experience inside the Octagon nevertheless helped him put up a stronger fight than Woodley did against Chimaev.

One fan then compared Chimaev and Covington’s performances directly, writing, “Don’t let this distract you from the fact that Gilbert got more points over Khamzat in wrestling than Belal did over Colby.”

The comparison was hard to ignore. While Burns managed to score four points against Chimaev, Muhammad failed to get on the board against Covington.

As a result, Covington received plenty of praise from fans for his dominant performance.

One fan wrote, “Colby was the only one who actually wrestled him, and it showed immediately. Belal’s whole game is pressure, and he had zero answer for someone who just kept going forward.” Then another fan commented, “Made it look way too easy.”

Muhammad is widely regarded as one of the better wrestlers in the UFC, so many expected him to give Covington a difficult test. Instead, the Miami-based fighter repeatedly disrupted Muhammad’s attempts to establish his game, using his forward pressure and throws to control the match.

It was also another strong performance from Covington against a fighter known for his wrestling. At RAF 11, ‘Chaos’ defeated Arman Tsarukyan 5-3 in another matchup between two accomplished MMA wrestlers.

That contest was much closer than Covington’s latest outing against Muhammad. This time, he shut his opponent out completely.

The fans weren’t done there, though. They also roasted Muhammad after he appeared to complain about an eye poke during the bout.

One fan wrote, “How is Belal always getting eyepoked😭.”

At one point, Muhammad complained about a poke to the eye as Covington went for a takedown. Eye pokes have also been an issue for Muhammad during his UFC career, with Leon Edwards and Ian Garry both involved in incidents where he was poked during fights.

Still, the bigger takeaway from RAF 13 was that both Chimaev and Covington left Miami with victories. Chimaev now has three wins under the RAF banner, while Covington remains unbeaten in the promotion and holds on to his title.

With their respective wins now secured, attention can turn toward their anticipated meeting in Abu Dhabi in November. Chimaev will have another opportunity to challenge Covington, this time with the RAF champion’s title potentially on the line.

And after the contrasting reactions to their performances in Miami, their eventual showdown has another storyline to add to it.