A Late Replacement Steps In
Colby Covington walked into a Hype FC grappling card in Rome on Tuesday, November 3, expecting Dillon Danis across from him. Danis pulled out shortly before the event for reasons that were not disclosed, and UFC bantamweight Raul Rosas Jr. stepped in on short notice. The promotion kept the pairing on the card despite the size gap between the two fighters.
The match was set for ten minutes, submission grappling only, with none of the striking allowed in a standard MMA bout. Rosas Jr. took Covington’s back within the opening seconds and locked in a rear-naked choke. Covington tapped out roughly 40 seconds in, with Conor McGregor watching ringside and reportedly laughing hysterically at the result.
Submitted in Under a Minute
Covington is regarded as one of the UFC’s finest grapplers, which made the finish land hard with American fans and media. According to essentiallysports.com, Rosas Jr. is only the second fighter to ever submit him, after Warlley Alves did it at UFC 194 back in 2015. Covington admitted afterward that he started slowly and had not trained jiu-jitsu in years, adding that the next matchup would go his way.
The two men also carried very different frames into the bout. Rosas Jr. competes at UFC bantamweight, around 135 pounds (61 kilograms). Covington normally fights well above that, up to RAF’s cruiserweight limit of 190 pounds (86 kilograms), a gap American outlets pegged at 40 to 50 pounds (18 to 23 kilograms) in Covington’s favor.
Rosas Jr. has downplayed the significance of these crossover grappling bouts himself. He described them as a side activity he does alongside his UFC career for entertainment, with his stated goal still being to become the youngest champion in promotion history.
Who Is Raul Rosas Jr.?
Raul Rosas Jr. is 22 years old and carries a 7-1 record inside the UFC. He debuted in the promotion at 18, submitting Jay Perrin in the first round at UFC 282 in December 2022. His most recent UFC outing came on September 26, 2026, a fifth-round win over Raoni Barcelos that was stopped after Barcelos lost consciousness from a slam. Rosas Jr. is now set to make his RAF debut against Clay Guida on November 28, a wrestling format outside his usual UFC work.
One of the UFC’s Best Grapplers, Caught Off Guard
Covington, for his part, is 5-0 in RAF, where he holds the cruiserweight title after beating Arman Tsarukyan for it. Before that run, he spent years as one of the UFC’s regular top welterweight contenders. The grappling loss in Rome has no bearing on that RAF title, since it came in a non-title bout for a different promotion, but it now colors the build toward his next date.
Covington’s Focus Already on Khamzat Chimaev
Covington defends that RAF belt on November 14 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi against Khamzat Chimaev, who is 4-0 in the promotion since beating Robbie Lawler. That bout will be contested under freestyle wrestling rules, with no submissions on the table, a different format than what just played out in Rome. Chimaev said after beating Lawler that he was happy to finally get his man and break his neck. Covington fired back in comments to Arab News, saying he is going to attack Chimaev’s legs, take him down, slam him and make him quit.
The Rome footage, widely picked up across American MMA media, changes nothing on paper heading into Abu Dhabi. RAF and the UFC remain separate promotions, and the grappling result carries no ranking or title implications for either man. It simply adds another layer to the psychological battle between the two men ahead of a fight that will be fought standing and on the mat, but without any submissions this time.
For Covington, the stakes now run deeper than the title defense itself. A loss on the mat to Chimaev, coming right after a 40-second submission in Rome, would revive questions about his ability to handle the new wave of wrestling-heavy heavyweights. For Rosas Jr., the opposite is true. A win that fast, against an opponent with a reputation for being tough on the ground, backs up his standing as one of the youngest prospects on the UFC roster.
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