This Past Weekend Colby Covington Tasted Defeat on His Return to the Octagon After Almost a Year
UFC Welterweight Joaquin Buckley beat Colby ‘Chaos’ Covington at UFC Fight Night Tampa on Saturday. The fight ended via doctor’s stoppage after the third round due to a nasty gash over Covington’s right eye.
Extending his win streak to 6 Joaquin Buckley proved that his move down to Welterweight was a smart one. The loss will be a hard pill to swallow for Covington who returned after almost a year out of action.
His last fight against Leon Edwards at UFC 296 was arguably his worst career performance. Although he put the UFC 296 performance down to a first-round broken foot, Colby looked equally as puzzled against Buckley.
The cut that would end the fight opened up thanks to a well-timed uppercut from Buckley meeting Covington as he shot for a takedown. The cut would progressively worsen, leaving Colby a bloody mess by the end of the third.
Despite the stoppage, Colby believes he ‘was just getting warmed up’ in the fight.
‘Chaos’ Speaks on His Latest UFC Performance
In Colby’s defence, he took the fight on short notice stepping in for Ian Garry, who was moved to fight Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310. However, the late call-up and time out of the cage was evident with Covington never finding his footing in the fight.
Despite losing back-to-back fights for the first time in his career, Covington stated that he’s ‘just getting started‘:
“I wasn’t at my best tonight, I came off the couch but it was for the company. I did this for the company that I love so much that changed my life. There’s still a lot of fight in me and the best is still yet to come. I was just getting warmed up in that fight, I think it was tied up 1-1 and I was starting to wear on him. I see him breathing out of his mouth, I was starting to catch him with more shots so it’s unfortunate that they stopped it.”
‘Chaos’ went on to add that he believe the cut was not sufficient enough to cause the fight to stop:
“Even Dana (White) came out and said if that was in Vegas it would’ve never been stopped. I took his hardest shots and they didn’t phase me at all… We’ll come back stronger.”
Colby being the fighter he is claimed he had more fight in him. But with a cut that large, and the doctor showing concern that Colby may ‘lose his eyelid’, the stoppage seems justified.
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