Chimaev vs Danis RAF 10 broadcast begins at 8 p.m. ET on FOX Nation.
Khamzat Chimaev will make his Real American Freestyle debut against Dillon Danis at RAF 10 on Saturday, June 13, headlining a catchweight bout at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis. The event airs on FOX Nation at 8 p.m. ET.
The timing is the part that gets your attention. Chimaev lost the UFC middleweight title by split decision to Sean Strickland at UFC 328 on May 9, and the brother who served as his second told reporters the camp had been grueling, with Chimaev initially preparing for a light heavyweight bout before plans changed. The Strickland loss was his first defeat in MMA. The RAF booking is the quick turnaround the promotion has been quietly building toward since announcing his signing at RAF 8 in April.
It’s an unusual pairing on paper. Chimaev arrives as a three-time Swedish national champion in freestyle wrestling (2016-18) the discipline that carried him to a 9-0 UFC start and the middleweight title in the first place. Danis arrives with a jiu-jitsu black belt, a lengthy social media tenure, and a competitive record measured more in years than in matches. It is also, despite the framing of some pre-event coverage, Danis’s second RAF appearance: he lost his promotional debut to Colby Covington at RAF 7 in March by tech fall, 14-4.
The co-main event has more straightforward appeal. Arman Tsarukyan, currently among the top-ranked UFC lightweights, faces Tony Ferguson at 175 pounds in a freestyle match that pulls two generations of the 155-pound division up a weight class and onto a wrestling mat. Tsarukyan and Chimaev are connected through Dagestani and AKA-adjacent training circles, which adds a layer to a card that already features two ex-UFC champions and two active contenders.
RAF, short for Real American Freestyle, has been building toward this kind of card since launching in May 2025 with Ben Askren as its first signee. The promotion has leaned into MMA crossover bookings to broaden the audience for professional wrestling beyond its traditional collegiate and Olympic base. Chimaev vs. Danis is the clearest expression of that strategy yet, pairing a current MMA headliner with a name that drives clicks regardless of competitive context.
The undercard is deeper than the headline suggests. Austin DeSanto meets Reineri Andreu for the RAF bantamweight championship at 135 pounds, and Lucía Yépez faces Kendra Ryan for the interim strawweight title at 120. Former MMA prospect Aaron Pico returns to wrestling against four-time PFL featherweight champion Lance Palmer at 155 pounds, arguably the cleanest pure-credentials matchup on the card. Pat Downey vs. Zac Braunagel, Hayden Zillmer vs. Rizabek Aitmukhan, and Yonger Bastida vs. Shamil Sharipov at heavyweight round out the heavier weights.
The broadcast team is its own statement of intent. Kurt Angle, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist freestyle wrestler turned WWE icon, is on the call alongside Chael Sonnen, Cyrus Fees, and Julianna Peña. Putting Angle in the booth tells you everything about how RAF wants the audience to read this product, somewhere between sanctioned freestyle competition and combat-sports spectacle, with enough wrestling credibility to satisfy purists.
The Chaifetz Arena booking matters here. St. Louis sits in the heart of American wrestling country, the venue has hosted NCAA tournament action, and walk-up interest tends to follow when the building has wrestling in its bones. Tickets went on sale through Ticketmaster in April.
For Chimaev, the appearance is a low-risk way to keep his name in circulation between MMA outings and to remind audiences that his base discipline is wrestling, not the striking exchanges that often dominate his fight highlights. For Danis, it’s a high-profile booking against an opponent he likely would not face under MMA rules in the near term, and a chance to even his RAF ledger after the Covington loss.
Tsarukyan vs. Ferguson carries different weight. Both fighters are active on the MMA circuit, and a freestyle wrestling result, win or lose, won’t materially affect their standing inside a cage. What it does offer is a rare format in which Tsarukyan’s wrestling, long considered among the lightweight division’s best, can be measured directly against a former interim UFC lightweight titleholder.
FOX Nation’s 8 p.m. ET window puts the broadcast against a crowded Saturday night sports schedule. RAF is betting that the Chimaev name, combined with the Tsarukyan-Ferguson curiosity factor and a deep undercard built around credentialed wrestlers, is enough to pull viewers who would not otherwise tune in for a wrestling card.
As someone who has covered combat sports across promotions for over a decade, I’d note that crossover bookings like this one are designed to test whether wrestling’s professional model can sustain MMA-level event pricing and attention. Saturday’s gate, ratings, and post-event chatter will tell that story better than any pre-fight projection.
The broadcast begins at 8 p.m. ET on FOX Nation.
