Rosas taps Covington with a rear-naked choke in 43 seconds

Raul Rosas Jr. taps Colby Covington with a rear-naked choke in 43 seconds. The match was the submission-only main event at Hype Fighting in Rome on Tuesday, and it was scheduled for 10 minutes.

Rosas took the match on short notice after Dillon Danis withdrew, scored an early takedown, and jumped onto Covington’s back. Rosas fights at bantamweight and Covington fights at welterweight, and Covington is the larger man.

Rosas said it feels great, that he became a world champion in that building in 2019, and that Conor McGregor was there. He said he is coming for the UFC belt and wants to become the youngest UFC champion, and he called the grappling entertainment beside that goal. Covington said he came out slow, that this was the first time he had done jiu-jitsu in years, and that he will get his hand raised next time. Covington is preparing for Khamzat Chimaev in RAF in Abu Dhabi in two weeks.

Rosas is 22 and 13-1, and Covington is 38 and 17-5. Bantamweight is 135 pounds (61 kg), welterweight is 170 pounds (77 kg), and Rosas is 69 inches (175 cm) with a 67-inch (170 cm) reach against 71 inches (180 cm) and a 72-inch (183 cm) reach for Covington.

Rosas stopped Raoni Barcelos with strikes at 1:38 of the fifth round on September 26, 2026, and that win is the sixth in a row. Joaquin Buckley stopped Covington by doctor stoppage at 4:42 of the third round on December 14, 2024.

Clovis, New Mexico is Rosas’s birthplace. He trains at Rosas Brothers MMA, he started training at four, and he turned pro in November 2021. The Octagon debut was a face crank of Jay Perrin at 2:44 of the first round on December 10, 2022. Three wins came by knockout, six by submission, and four by decision, the submissions were three rear-naked chokes, two armbars, and a face crank, and six finishes came in the first round, two in the second, and one in the fifth. He has two older brothers and an older sister, and all three are professional fighters. The nickname is El Nino Problema, he was a youth MMA world champion, he holds NAGA belts in grappling, four fight-night bonuses came in eight UFC appearances, and he went 6-0 as an amateur.

Covington is retired. Oregon is his birthplace. He trains at MMA Masters in Miami, he turned pro in 2012, and he wrestled at Iowa and at Central Iowa Community College. He won the interim welterweight title and was later stripped, he was a Pac-10 wrestling champion and a two-time NCAA All-American, and he earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Oregon State. His mother gave him the nickname Chaos, from the first god in Greek mythology. Four wins came by knockout, four by submission, and nine by decision, the submissions were two arm triangles and two rear-naked chokes, and he has won nine of his last 13. The Octagon debut was a submission of Wang Anying at 4:50 of the first round on August 23, 2014.