MMA

Bo Nickal applauds Colby Covington following RAF 11 win, warns there are 'levels' to freestyle wrestling

Published

3 months ago

July 19, 2026

Bo Nickal applauds Colby Covington following RAF 11 win, warns there are 'levels' to freestyle wrestling

Bo Nickal admits Colby Covington put in some solid work in his RAF 11 victory this past Saturday, but he feels a potential match between the two would play out far differently.

Covington looked to continue his momentum in freestyle wrestling against top UFC lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan inside the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. Covington earned a 5-3 win over Tsarukyan to improve his RAF record to 4-0. He has now nabbed victories over Tsarukyan, Chris Weidman, Dillon Danis, and Luke Rockhold.

Nickal saw Covington's match against Tsarukyan, and he won't deny that the former interim UFC Welterweight Champion put in the work to earn his victory. While Nickal had praise for the performance, he still believes Covington would be in for a rude awakening if they share the mat.

Colby actually looked pretty good vs Arman but there's levels. If yall want to see an absolute massacre give me that @RAFWrestlingUSA cross over belt match up next. Easy work.

â€” Bo Nickal (@NoBickal) July 19, 2026

â€œColby actually looked pretty good vs Arman but there's levels. If yall want to see an absolute massacre give me that @RAFWrestlingUSA cross over belt match up next. Easy work.â€

Nickal and Covington have gotten into a war of words in the past. Nickal has claimed that Covington lied about a proposed UFC Freedom 250 fight that never came to fruition. He even said that he had â€œreceiptsâ€ to prove that â€œChaosâ€ was lying about him turning down a bout.

Covington has retired from pro MMA competition and has been focusing on freestyle wrestling. It appears the only way the two could settle things is under the RAF banner.

Both Nickal and Covington have their next freestyle wrestling matches booked. Nickal will be facing Max McEnelly at RAF 12 on Aug. 22 in Cleveland. Covington is set to compete on that same card against Belal Muhammad. While Nickal and Covington had their aforementioned banter, things have gotten personal between â€œChaosâ€ and Muhammad.

If Bo Nickal and Colby Covington collide under the RAF banner, who would you give the edge to? Sound off in the comments below.

MMA

Paulo Costa slams UFC pay after Rampage Jacksons $7 million claim

Published

2 hours ago

October 30, 2026

The Punch Junkie™ News

Paulo Costa slams UFC pay after Rampage Jackson's $7 million claim

Paulo
Costa has renewed his criticism of fighter pay in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship.

A resurfaced clip shows UFC middleweight champion Sean
Strickland asking former light heavyweight champion Quinton
“Rampage” Jackson about his biggest UFC payday. Jackson said he
earned $7 million, including pay-per-view compensation, for
fighting Chuck
Liddell. Costa contrasted that figure with his estimate of what
a current UFC fighter earns.

Paulo Costa compares Rampage Jackson’s claimed $7 million
payday with estimated Raoni Barcelos earnings

Jackson attributed the payday to a contract he signed with World
Fighting Alliance, where he said his manager also had a promotional
role. According to Jackson, the deal included lucrative
pay-per-view terms that the UFC inherited when its parent company
acquired WFA assets in December 2006.

â€œ$7 million, Chuck Liddell, that was pay-per-view, though,â€ Jackson
told Strickland. â€œI left
Pride. My manager, he became like the manager of the show. So,
he knew exactly that it was his biggest deal. They didn't want to
have pay-per-view, so he gave me a crazy pay-per-view deal. Then
Dana White bought WFA and had to honor my pay-per-view deal.â€

Costa compared Jackson's account with Raoni
Barcelos' stoppage loss to Raul Rosas
Jr. last month. Barcelos, 39, lost consciousness during a
fifth-round grappling exchange. Costa speculated that Barcelos
earned between $80,000 and $100,000, contrasting that estimate with
Jackson's claimed earnings from his 2007 victory over Liddell.

â€œUFC paid Rampage 7 million to fight Chuck what is comprehensive,â€
Costa wrote on X. â€œNot comparing fighters relevance but comparing
it with Barcelos x Rosas Jr 5 rds and had serious injuries on brain
damage, made 80k~100k ?? Raoni Barcelos is around 40s and probably
retired due to that injury.â€

UFC paid RAMPAGE 7 million to fight CHUCK
what is comprehensive. Not comparing fighters relevance but
comparing it with Barcelos x Raul RosaJr5 rds and had serious
injuries on brain damage ðŸ§ made 80k~100k ?? Raoni
Barcelos is around 40s and PROBABLY retired due that injury

â€” Paulo
Costa (@BorrachinhaMMA)
October 15, 2026

MMA

Video shows police officer slamming spectator at UFC Edmonton

Published

14 hours ago

October 29, 2026

The Punch Junkie™ News

Video shows police officer slamming spectator at UFC Edmonton

The
Ultimate Fighting Championship's recent visit to Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada, featured action inside and outside the
Octagon.

Police intervene in Rogers Place crowd altercation during UFC
Edmonton

Every bout at
UFC Edmonton except the co-main event ended in a finish. But a
crowd altercation at Rogers Place on Oct. 17 also drew
attention.

Video circulating on social media appears to show a police officer
lifting a man and slamming him to the floor as officers intervene
in the altercation. The man appears to lose consciousness after the
impact.

Police officer slam KO'd a fan fighting in
the crowd at UFC Edmonton tonight https://t.co/hN8Mzqf7CM

â€” Happy Punch (@HappyPunch)
October 18, 2026

MMA

GFL announces new signings for December relaunch in Argentina

Published

15 hours ago

October 29, 2026

The Punch Junkie™ News

GFL announces new signings for December relaunch in Argentina

The Global Fight League is expected to relaunch in December and the organization has announced its opening roster of fighters for the Buenos Aires Gauchos team.

This past weekend, the GFL announced it will hold its inaugural event on Dec. 18 at Club Atletico Lanus in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the Gauchos taking on fighters from the Miami Monsters. Now, the league has begun to name the fighters who will compete for the Gauchos, which you can see in the list below.

Middleweight: Dante Romero (9-8)

Welterweight: Matias Ponce (12-5, 1 NC)

Lightweight: Franco Rios (4-0)

Lightweight: Thomas Juarez (6-2)

Featherweight: Lionel Abojer (12-4)

Featherweight: Eduardo Cajal (9-5)

Bantamweight: Ryan Martinez (9-1)

Flyweight: Nicolas Rodriguez (9-3)

More fighters are expected to be announced, including the roster for the Monsters.

Former UFC title contender and longtime MMA veteran Marlon Moraes was recently added to the Miami roster, but MMA Fighting's Guilherme Cruz has learned from sources with knowledge of the event that Moraes will not be competing on the Dec. 18 card.

It is not yet known exactly how the team vs. team format will work, but the league has shared its scoring system for future events:

The GFL made headlines in 2025 with lofty promises in regards to athlete compensation and the signing of numerous MMA stars and veterans including , including former UFC champions Tyron Woodley, Chris Weidman, Luke Rockhold, Anthony Pettis, and Holly Holm, but has failed to produce an event thus far. Initially, the league was supposed to hold a pair of shows on May 24 and May 25 in 2025, only for those events to be later cancelled.