Khamzat Chimaev left the arena immediately after the chaotic melee at RAF 10 and on Sunday told Red Corner MMA he is ready to take the dispute with Dillon Danis outside the ring: "Whenever he wants, just send me a message [with] location wherever you are and so I’m open," he said, adding bluntly, "I accept something like that."
Chimaev’s comment came after a wrestling match that finished in seconds and then dissolved into a mass brawl. He scored a rapid-fire pinfall win in the first period; Danis nearly latched on with what almost looked like a guillotine as Chimaev shot for a takedown, then clung to Chimaev’s foot as the referee tried to separate them. A second later, Chimaev kicked Danis in the leg and dozens of people flooded the stage, forcing RAF officials to try desperately to regain control.
Speaking after the event, Chimaev framed the clash as the predictable unraveling of one-sided grappling theater. "He knows he wasn’t my level in wrestling so he felt that and then he tried to sub me," he said, later punctuating the moment: "Like do submission, bro." He did not excuse Danis’s actions — "What should I think? Stupid guys do stupid things" — and called them out personally: "He’s a weird guy, honestly," and "You know I try to hold myself but this idiot do stupid things." He even suggested how seriously it would have mattered if Danis had secured a submission: "If he did a submission on me, I’m never going to train again."
That bluntness underlines a contrast reporters saw all week: earlier in the week Chimaev had publicly invited Danis to a street fight, and at the RAF 10 pre-match press conference the two traded a playful, not contentious, faceoff. Chimaev reiterated the invitation on Sunday: "I asked him before like [let's] do a street fight, you know?" and said he had pictured asking Danis to settle things after the match: "I was thinking winning the match then outside I want to ask him let's go. Let's dance outside," though he insisted "He don’t want it." He also suggested Danis expected heavy security and was counting on that: "He knew a lot of security is going to be there and that’s why he was doing same shit stuff."
The friction is stark: a jocular press appearance turned into a rapid pinfall and then a stage floor fight that required dozens to be separated. RAF officials were not happy with the situation, and the promotion has not yet decided whether the brawl will keep either Chimaev or Danis from returning to work with RAF. That unresolved decision now sits against Chimaev’s own public challenge and his invitation to Danis to name a place and time.
Chimaev’s choice to speak on Sunday — and to walk straight into an open challenge rather than temper his words — puts pressure on both men and on RAF. He has left the next move clearly visible: Danis can accept, ignore, or respond through the promotion, and RAF must choose whether to treat Saturday’s melee as a punishable breach or a combustible moment that will be managed internally. Until RAF makes that call, Chimaev’s offer and the question of who pays a professional price for the brawl remain the story’s live elements.
