Arlington, Texas — For someone who has just recently retired, Colby Covington sure has been staying busy. Just weeks after announcing that he was stepping away from active mixed martial arts competition, the former interim UFC welterweight champion scored a victory over Chris Weidman at RAF 09 and immediately agreed to a future showdown with Arman Tsarukyan. What began as a retirement story has quickly become one of the biggest storylines in Real American Freestyle, a promotion that suddenly looks much closer to a legitimate player in combat sports.
Covington’s move to RAF surprised many fans when it was first announced. While he had been inactive inside the Octagon, he remained one of the UFC’s most recognizable personalities and one of the sport’s most reliable headline generators. Rather than continue waiting for another UFC booking, Covington chose to focus his attention on wrestling, the sport he has repeatedly described as his first love. The decision also opened the door to a variety of crossover matchups that would have been difficult to pursue while actively competing in the UFC.
Andrew Carswell is a combat sports columnist and college writing professor, based in Las Vegas, NV, whose work examines the intersection of fighting, media, business, and culture. His commentary and analysis have been featured in various magazines, newspapers, and media outlets, including Yahoo! News, and USA TODAY. Blending journalistic insight and experience with a fan’s perspective, Carswell writes about the fight game as both a cultural phenomenon and a global business.