UFC Rejected Tsarukyan–Covington for RAF 9. The Same Week, It Approved Two Others.

RAF 8 ended on a Saturday. By Sunday the UFC had a new policy problem to pretend it already had a policy for.

Here is what happened. On April 18, Arman Tsarukyan finished up his wrestling match with Urijah Faber, walked cageside on the Philadelphia floor, and called out Colby Covington by name. Covington grabbed a mic. He said yes. He said he would skip his booked RAF 9 match with Chris Weidman and take Tsarukyan instead. Two UFC-contracted fighters, on a non-UFC broadcast, agreeing to a wrestling match in front of a live crowd. The sport's most reliable piece of drama — a fighter accepting a callout — happened exactly the way it is supposed to.

The UFC rejected it inside 24 hours.