Colby Covington had a tough night at the office this past weekend in the Tampa.
In the final main event of 2024, the former interim champion was outmatched and outgunned by Joaquin Buckley.
With "New Mansa" extending his current winning streak to six, Covington finds himself in a tricky position.
He's now suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time in his career and has gone 0-4 against opponents that are currently ranked in the top 15.
Despite the criticism that he has faced for his performances against Buckley and Leon Edwards at UFC 296, Covington doesn't feel the same.
He gave fans a behind the scenes look at fight week via his YouTube channel which also shows his initial reaction to the defeat.
Covington mentions several factors that he believes impacted the result of the fight, largely focusing on the doctor stopping the fight too early.
After "Chaos" suffered a cut above his right eye early on in the contest, the doctor told him that if he didn't protect it better, she would have to wave the fight off which she did in the third round.
Covington believes that if the fight had been allowed to continue, we would have seen a different outcome:
“We’re gonna be back stronger than ever, this is just the beginning for me,” Covington said. “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,” Covington continued. “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.”
It looks like he's not close to hanging up the gloves any time soon and though he did take this fight on short notice, something has got to give if Covington is going to become a top contender in the welterweight division again.
Watch the full video below:
