Chimaev vs Burns 2 is booked for RAF 13, and there is no cage this time

Chimaev vs Burns 2 will co-headline RAF 13 on September 18 at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, Florida, as a catchweight wrestling match on Fox Nation. Four and a half years after their UFC 273 classic, the rematch happens on a mat, because the fight Khamzat Chimaev actually wants has not been offered to him.

Key takeaways

Khamzat Chimaev and Gilbert Burns meet again on September 18 at RAF 13 in Coral Gables, Florida, in a catchweight wrestling bout that serves as co-main event under Colby Covington.
Their first meeting, at UFC 273 in April 2022, went to a unanimous decision for Chimaev and earned Fight of the Night. It remains the closest anyone came to beating him before Sean Strickland did.
Burns retired from MMA in April after a TKO loss to Mike Malott, his fifth straight defeat. He has since moved into management and grappling, submitting Horlando Monteiro in 82 seconds at a UFC BJJ event in June.

Chimaev vs Burns 2 lands as the RAF 13 co-main event

The booking, in full

RAF announced the pairing itself: Khamzat Chimaev against Gilbert Burns on September 18 at RAF 13, at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, just outside Miami. The card airs exclusively on Fox Nation and is headlined by Colby Covington. Chimaev and Burns go on second from the top, in a catchweight wrestling match rather than an MMA fight.

Burns answered the announcement with two words on social media: “Let’s wrestle.” It is his RAF debut. For Chimaev it is the third grappling booking of a very busy stretch, and the two of them will meet under rules that strip out the part of their first fight nobody has forgotten.

What the first one actually was

UFC 273, April 2022. Chimaev arrived unbeaten and largely untested, having spent his UFC run finishing people before they could gather themselves. Burns took him through three rounds that swung both ways, dropped him, took real damage back, and lost a unanimous decision that a lot of people scored differently. Both men left with Fight of the Night.

That fight is still the reference point for the whole Chimaev question. Until this year it was the only evidence that he could be pushed. Everything else in his record was a wipeout.

Why Chimaev is wrestling instead of fighting

The loss that changed his calendar

In May, at UFC 328 in Newark, Sean Strickland took the middleweight title back from Chimaev by split decision, 48-47, 47-48, 48-47. It was the first defeat of Chimaev’s professional career, and it was close enough that a rematch should have been the obvious next booking. It has not been made.

So Chimaev has filled the gap sideways. He pinned Dillon Danis on his RAF debut this summer. He is in the RAF Moscow main event against Tyron Woodley. Now he takes Burns. Three grappling bouts in a few months, from a fighter who has not competed in MMA since losing his belt.

The four names he wants

He has been direct about what he is waiting for. On social media he named Sean Strickland, Dricus du Plessis, Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho, and put himself at the front of the queue for all four. Strickland is clearly the one he means. The others are the alternatives if the rematch keeps not happening.

Wrestling cards are a reasonable way to stay sharp and stay visible. They are not a title shot, and Chimaev is not pretending otherwise. Read the RAF run for what it is: a fighter keeping his name in circulation while a division decides what to do with him.

I'm ready. Let me know when you are ready Sean, Dricus, Nassourdine, Caio.
— Khamzat Chimaev, on social media

Burns has already stopped being an MMA fighter

A retirement, then a second career

Burns is not coming into this as an active fighter. He retired from MMA in April after a TKO loss to Mike Malott, the fifth defeat in a row of a run that had taken him from title challenger to the wrong end of the welterweight top fifteen. Since then he has moved into fighter management and gone back to what he was before any of this, which is a very good grappler.

That second part matters here. In June he submitted Horlando Monteiro in 82 seconds at a UFC BJJ event. Burns is a black belt with a serious competitive record on the mat, and a wrestling ruleset removes the thing that hurt him most in 2022, which was absorbing Chimaev’s strikes across fifteen minutes.

What to watch on September 18

The interesting question is not who is stronger. It is whether Burns can do to a wrestling match what he did to the first fight, which is drag it past the point where Chimaev’s opening burst decides anything. Chimaev’s grappling has always been front-loaded: the takedown, the scramble, the position taken in the first ninety seconds. Burns is one of a very small number of people who has survived that and kept working.

Rules, cards and dates in this sport change constantly, and this one is unusual enough to be worth following properly rather than through screenshots. Fighter records, full cards and every booking as it is confirmed are in the FightHub app. Download it and follow RAF 13 as it firms up.