Belal Muhammad isn't buying Colby Covington's tough guy talk.
Despite years competing in wrestling and the UFC, Muhammad doesn't think Covington is all that skilled or tough. He's been wanting to prove Covington can break in competition, but the two unfortunately haven't crossed paths in MMA despite both being top contenders at welterweight for many years. Covington retired from MMA earlier this year, so fighting him in the octagon seems like an impossibility. However, there is Real American Freestyle – a wrestling promotion that's taken the combat sports world by storm in 2026.
Muhammad's long-time wish came true in facing Covington, but not exactly in the format he hoped for. Muhammad and Covington are booked to headline RAF 13 in Miami, Fla.
on Sept. 19. Although not Muhammad's natural form of combat, he's confident he can break Covington in his own world, and finally show people what he's been saying about "Chaos" all these years.
"I want to go out there, dominate him in just straight-up wrestling, and then show, like I've been calling, I've been saying it, and I've been showing you guys that this dude sucks," Muhammad told MMA Junkie. "I'm going to go out there and prove it. I don't get to slap him around or make him bleed, but I will make him cry."
Muhammad tried to confront Covington a few weeks back at an RAF press conference where a short scuffle broke out between the two. Covington said the match was off due to Muhammad's antics, but eventually walked back his comments, and now they're facing each other at RAF 13.
"Off camera, he's doing his hiding," Muhammad said. "Like literally, he sees me walking one way, and he'll walk the other way. Even at the RAF match, right? We were both on stage. I was walking. I was at the bottom of the stairs. He saw me, and he stayed at the top of the stairs. Like the dude at his heart, at his core, is a coward. He's soft. Even when he was in the UFC, we were trying to book that fight forever. He's always turned it down. He's always said, no. He's always come up with an excuse. At his core, like, he could play this whole charade of, 'I'm this beast, I know how to talk, and yada, yada, yada,' and wear these cheap suits, but at his core, he's just like a girl in a ballerina dress."
Covington became an All-American during his college days at Oregon State University. Since resuming his wrestling career under RAF, the former UFC title challenger has gone 4-0, winning the inaugural RAF Cruiserweight Crossover Championship with a points win over Arman Tsarukyan in July.
Muhammad is not impressed with what Covington has done. He thinks his opponents weren't up to par, and the only real challenge, Tsarukyan, was vastly undersized. Muhammad sees himself as Covington's biggest challenge so far – which is why he thinks Covington tried to get out of the matchup a few weeks back.
"I think the world knows Colby is a coward, right? He's looking for anything, any way to get out of it," Muhammad said. "He thought he could big-head his way out of it like, 'Oh, I'm a big shot. I'm the, I'm one of the investors here and I get to make the rules.' Shout out to Chad, right? He's like, 'Nah, bro. We're in charge. We make the matches we want to make.' That's what I love about RAF. They're not letting anybody like cherry pick who they go against, let anybody sit out and, sit on their throne.
"Colby is one of those guys, I don't think he's (had a tough match). His only match that he's had that was tough was Arman (Tsarukyan), everybody else were guys who looked like they really didn't even care about going for it and he's acting like the king of the world. The first match I went against, I went against David Carr. I wanted to. They offered me and I was like, 'Yes, I want to test myself against the toughest guys.' So when I knew that Colby retired and then we were able to do UFC against UFC, I'm like, 'Bro, what do I got to do to get Colby,' and they were like, 'Oh, you know, he said no to this, he wants Arman and yada yada,' so I was like, 'All right.' They offered me Ben Askren and I said, 'All right, if I beat Ben, can I get Colby?' And they were like, 'Yeah, we could work on it. We could work on it.' Then obviously the whole presser happened, and the dude like backed off the whole time. He was a chicken the whole time, covered the whole time, so I called him out, and I was like, 'Let's go book us in a match.' He's been afraid to fight me, so now I'm going to your world. You've been a college wrestler. You think you're the best wrestler in MMA, so now I'm coming to the mat, and I'm going to dominate him in that."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Belal Muhammad out to make 'soft' Colby Covington cry at RAF 13
