This past Saturday at UFC Tampa, Colby Covington returned to action for the first time in almost a year, taking on Joaquin Buckley in the main event.
After possibly the worst performance of his career against Leon Edwards last December, Colby Covington was hoping to return with a big win over Joaquin Buckley at UFC Tampa.
Despite that, ‘Chaos’ was utterly dominated from the opening bell, suffering a doctor stoppage loss in the third round.
Colby Covington breaks his silence following his loss at UFC Tampa
The 36-year-old is one of the most outspoken fighters on the entire UFC roster and ahead of his fight against ‘New Mansa’, Covington claimed that he could leapfrog Shavkat Rakhmonov for a welterweight title shot.
Unfortunately for Covington, though, he once again couldn’t back up his words with his performance. In the opening round, Buckley caught the wrestler with a sharp uppercut, opening up a cut on his eyelid.
Although the cut wasn’t that deep to begin with, it caused Covington issues as he continuously touched it and it became deeper as the fight went on.
In round three, the doctor deemed Covington unable to continue as she feared he would ‘lose his eyelid’ and the fight was called by Dan Miragliotta.
Having lost the fight, Covington didn’t get the chance to offer his thoughts on the microphone, but he has since broken his silence on his performance.
“We’re gonna be back stronger than ever, this is just the beginning for me,” Covington claimed despite suffering back-to-back losses for the first time in his career.
“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.
“I know 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.
“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,” he continued.
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Covington went on to claim that the cut was opened up by a headbutt and that he was suffering from blurred vision from when the cut was caused. Although Covington believes it was 1-1 going into the third round, the 36-year-old was down 2-0 on all three scorecards.
Chael Sonnen claims he was about to throw in the towel before the doctor stoppage
Surprisingly, Covington walked out with WWE legend Hulk Hogan and was cornered by UFC legend, Chael Sonnen.
Sonnen, who doesn’t have a whole lot of experience being a cornerman claimed that he was getting ready to throw the towel in during round three, prior to the doctor stopping the fight.
“Colby was getting hit on the feet with everything you can do, he was busted open so bad that the doctor had to look at it three times, twice they stopped the action to look at it, and the third time they said ‘We can’t go anymore’,” Sonnen said in a video on his YouTube channel.
“I was gonna stop that fight, I already grabbed the towel. When the doctor came in the third time, I’m watching that blood and it’s not stopping and it is going into the eye… I stood up so I could see what the doctor was doing and I said to Charlie the number two, ‘hand me that towel I’m stopping this’,” he continued.