Khamzat Chimaev and Colby Covington have talked about hurting each other for years, but their next meeting will happen on a wrestling mat instead of inside a cage. According to Ag Fight, the two are set to duel for the "crossover cruiserweight" belt in Real American Freestyle wrestling on November 14 in Abu Dhabi.
The report frames it as the former middleweight champion against the former interim welterweight champion, a matchup that lets both men settle a piece of their feud without either having to change weight classes for an MMA bout that has never gotten made.
For Chimaev, this comes at an odd moment. He is still ranked number one at middleweight in our rankings, but his most recent outing did not go his way. He lost to Sean Strickland by split decision on May 9, 2026, snapping whatever aura of invincibility he carried into that fight. Our Elo model has him at 1568 across five tracked bouts, a number built almost entirely on a short, high stakes sample rather than a long track record.
Whatever happens on the mat in Abu Dhabi, it will not change either man's official MMA record or ranking. But it will keep the rivalry in the public eye and give fans another data point on how these two match up physically, even if the sport is different. Wrestling has always been the foundation both men lean on when the trash talk starts, so a real contest between them, even outside the cage, carries some weight.
No formal UFC rematch or fresh middleweight assignment has been announced for Chimaev following the Strickland loss, and Covington's next move in the octagon remains unannounced as well. For now, Abu Dhabi is where these two settle things, on a mat, under RAF rules, with a belt on the line instead of a ranking.