Colby Covington is back on brand and by brand we mean maximum volume with zero chill. Ahead of RAF07 he claimed Arman Tsarukyan used to get beat up all the time at ATT and said he still wants to expose him on the mats.
In comments to Ariel Helwani, Covington said:
“That’s a guy I used to beat up all the time at ATT, a little understudy who came to train just to get beaten by me in the gym. He’s someone I want to expose to the world and take down on the RAF mats, but the UFC is blocking that right now.” If you were hoping for subtlety, wrong fighter.
Old ATT politics keep leaking into new fight week chaos
This talk lands harder because Covington and ATT history is already a soap opera with takedowns. His exits and teammate feuds have been public for years, so gym stories about Tsarukyan do not arrive in a vacuum. They arrive with receipts, grudges, and a very online audience ready to clip every sentence.
Tsarukyan also is not a random callout. He is one of the sharper names in the lightweight lane and has been active in crossover wrestling appearances while staying tied to UFC contention. So when Covington drags old training room claims into fight week, it is not just trash talk. It is an attempt to force a future booking with built in bad blood.
Why RAF07 benefits from this exact kind of noise
RAF gets value when UFC names bring unfinished arguments onto a wrestling platform. Covington gets headlines. Tsarukyan gets a chance to dismiss or eventually settle the claim under lights. Fans get chaos with a scoreboard.
The weekend already has enough friction with Covington vs Dillon Danis and Tsarukyan handling his own RAF assignment. Covington just made sure another storyline runs in parallel and keeps his name attached to every clip cycle until the event starts.
Whether people believe the ATT claim or not, the strategy is obvious. Keep talking, keep pressure on matchmaking, and keep the spotlight warm between UFC appearances. That playbook has worked for him before and he is clearly still running it.
As this week closes out, the crossover thread stays tied to RAF07 event logistics, Covington and Danis buildup, and the wider Tsarukyan UFC contender track.
