Was Colby Covington ever really that great?
The three-time title challenger returned to the Octagon on Saturday night in Tampa for a short-notice scrap against streaking standout Joaquin Buckley.
Things turned disastrous for ‘Chaos’ early after Buckley landed a shot that cut open Covington’s right eyelid. The fight was ultimately called off due to a doctor’s stoppage in the waning seconds of the third round, much to the chagrin of both Buckley and Covington who wanted to keep going.
The loss was an especially bad one for Covington who fell to 2-6 in his last eight fights and will likely find himself barely clinging onto a spot in the welterweight top 10 once the rankings are updated.
Following the UFC Tampa headliner, MMA veterans Angela ‘Overkill’ Hill and Jessica Penne offered their take on Covington’s performance and whether or not the staunch Trump supporter was ever truly that good inside the Octagon.
“Is he great, or is he the guy that almost got fired and sold his soul for paychecks? I think he’s a great fighter, yeah,” Hill said on their 2 Straws podcast. “And I think we get distracted by the shtick, by the persona that he’s created. We really get distracted by it and forget that he’s a really good fighter.”
Penne and Hill think Colby Covington deserves respect
Penne echoed a similar sentiment in her assessment of Covington’s skills.
“He is a tough fight. Now, he took this fight on short notice against Buckley, who is in his prime and on the rise,” Penne said. “I think we just kind of forget. But Colby is really talented.”
“His rise to the top, his fights against Usman—they were very competitive,” Hill added. “He had Usman on queer street a couple of times in those fights. Even in the Edwards fight, he didn’t really show up for that one, but he went hard in the fifth round and showed what he could do. It just might have been a mental flop. So, he’s definitely someone who is to be respected.“
