Precautions are in place to try and prevent another brawl at RAF 7 with Arman Tsarukyan rematching Georgio Poullas in the main event while fireworks could also potentially erupt when former UFC interim welterweight champion Colby Covington takes on Dillon Danis in the co-main event.
That’s according to RAF official Ben Askren, who wasn’t thrilled by what unraveled in the first match between Tsarukyan and Poullas as they both committed a number of fouls before the top-ranked UFC lightweight tackled
his opponent to the ground after the final buzzer and threw a punch, which led to a melee breaking out on stage.
“Arman’s a lot of fun, though,” Askren told MMA Fighting about Tsarukyan. “I didn’t realize how funny he was until he started working with RAF. He’s hilarious. He does a great job. The match was out of control in Tempe. I hope Tampa, I hope it doesn’t turn into a fight again, although I think there’s a chance of that.”
The bad blood between Tsarukyan and Poullas was already simmering before they stepped on the mats together as there was already plenty of trash talk exchanged prior to the match. Once the wrestling started, Tsarukyan and Poullas were both accused of committing numerous fouls including head slapping, eye pokes and finger manipulation, which drew warnings from the referee but neither competitor was disqualified.
While some wrestling matches can get a little too physical, Askren says what happened between Tsarukyan and Poullas was way out of bounds. The retired UFC welterweight believes a lot of the problems started with Poullas, who seemed content poking the bear and trying to get a reaction out of Tsarukyan, which is exactly what happened.
“I was not a fan of the match,” Askren said. “Simply because it appeared Georgio was not trying to engage in the wrestling match. He was doing all these other tactics. I actually said during the first period break, I believe his strategy here because Arman has a short fuse, there’s no doubt about that, to get Arman so upset that he punches him then he’ll be a winner by disqualification. It appeared to be that’s what was happening.
“Then funny enough, I was totally right because Arman said ‘I knew I was going to punch him but if I punched him during the match, I’d get disqualified so I waited until just after the match to punch him.’”
Askren says for the rematch, the referee overseeing the bout has been instructed to keep an eye on any illegal activity while Tsarukyan and Poullas will receive copious warnings that repeated fouls could lead to a disqualification.
It’s unknown if that will actually stop another brawl from breaking out but Askren definitely hopes things go smoother this time around.
“I know RAF, we’ve talked about this, there’s going to be extra security,” Askren revealed. “We cannot let what happened last time, the chaotic fight, we can’t let that happen. We’ve got to keep it under control. I know the referees are going to be coached up and the athletes ‘here’s what’s legal, here’s what’s illegal.’ We’re going to call it the way it should be called. Hand jamming to the face is not allowed in international wrestling. You can’t do that. So that is a caution and a penalty. You get three cautions, the match is over and you’re disqualified. It’s pretty simple.
“We’re going to have a wrestling match that is refereed by the rules. It’s not going to be loose anymore. We are going to call it. We’re going to have extra security. This will not get out of hand. There will not be another brawl. Does one of them get disqualified? I can’t tell you on that one. If they do want to abide by the rules of freestyle wrestling, that might happen. I’m not sure. But it will be tighter than the last time.”
The same rules are going to be applied for Covington’s match against Danis, especially given the skill set difference in that showdown.
While Danis is world class grappler, he never competed at the highest levels in wrestling and Covington was an All-American at Oregon State. In his first appearance in RAF, Covington effectively ragdolled former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, who was physically much bigger but completely outmatched when it came to wrestling.
Askren expects much the same when Covington gets on the mat against Danis, but he can’t help but wonder if the infamous troublemaker might try something out of bounds like pulling for a submission during a wrestling match and that could result in mayhem.
“I 1,000-percent see Danis doing that,” Askren said. “Again, I will say the referees will be instructed to hold this one a little tighter. Because we know Colby generally wrestles by the rules, and he is the one who is the veteran, he should be the favorite and he should wrestle by the rules. Can you see Dillon Danis getting out of pocket? A 1,000 percent.
“So here are the rules of the match. If you do things that are illegal like a guillotine chokehold, there will be a caution of one [point], there will be a penalty. If you get three penalties, you are disqualified. So I think we just need a referee who is really going to make them abide by the rules of the thing and we need make extra, extra clear here’s the rules, here’s how it’s going to go down and if you don’t want to do a real wrestling match, then this is a real wrestling match and you’ll be disqualified.”
Of course as soon as Danis was announced for the event, there were more than a few jabs about whether or not he would actually show up for the match against Covington.
Danis twice cancelled matches against KSI when he crossed over to influencer boxing and more recently he dropped out of a scheduled MMA fight against Anthony Taylor after suffering injuries during a brawl that broke out at UFC 322 involving members of Islam Makhachev’s team.
“Is Dillon Danis ever going to show up?” Askren said. “He claims to be an MMA fighter, but I want to say he’s got two total MMA bouts. I suppose he has three bouts over the course of eight years so I guess he’s an MMA fighter. I suppose.
“Will he show up? I’m hoping he will but he’s at a significant disadvantage because Colby was a pretty solid college wrestler and Dillon never wrestled at that level.”
