Colby Covington Stuns Arman Tsarukyan: Inside His Dominant Raf 11 Wrestling Masterclass

Catch up with Colby Covington Stuns Arman Tsarukyan: Inside His Dominant Raf 11 Wrestling Masterclass. Read all about expert viewpoints in this concise summary.

Covington’s performance did not materialize out of thin air. It was the product of decades spent on competition mats against the toughest collegiate brackets in the United States. Long before he developed his polarizing public persona, Covington built a fearsome reputation as a relentless chain wrestler at Oregon State wrestling.

Prior to arriving in Corvallis, Covington dominated the junior college circuit at Iowa Central Community College, capturing the 2007 NJCAA National Championship at 165 pounds with a clean 34, 0 season. When he transferred to Oregon State University, he immediately made his mark in the Pac-10 conference. Wrestling at 174 pounds, Covington captured back-to-back Pac-10 individual conference titles in 2010 and 2011.

His collegiate pinnacle came at the 2011 NCAA Division I Championships in Philadelphia, where he earned NCAA Division I All-American honors by finishing fifth in the nation. That collegiate wrestling record shaped his entire athletic identity, instilling a level of physical conditioning and mat composure that pure mixed martial artists rarely replicate.