Colby ‘Chaos’ Covington has a third chance at seizing UFC championship gold this weekend against Leon Edwards in the UFC 296 headliner. Given he turns 36 in February and is relatively inactive as it is, this represents the former interim titlist’s final shot to scale the welterweight mountaintop against a champion who didn’t deem him a worthy challenger. Will he prove himself to be one?
Colby must match his shtick this weekend
Whatever your feelings towards Colby Covington, especially after his incendiary press conference comments about Leon Edwards’ murdered father on Thursday, it’s important to understand where this unlikeable villainous persona stems from.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto did a piece on it earlier in the week, with backstory dating back to his collegiate days and a now well-documented tale about how he was poised for the promotional chop, despite a win streak warranting attention.
He changed, most say for the worse, but adopting an alter-ego in-front of cameras did the trick and the rest has unfolded before our eyes in the last half-decade.
Yet he’s two months shy of his 36th birthday with a flimsy resume and knows the attention will wane if he is unable to make it third time lucky in pursuit of the one thing that has eluded him all these years – the UFC welterweight title.
Since beating Rafael dos Anjos to win UFC interim gold in June 2018…
UD5 win vs. Robbie Lawler, Aug. 2019
R5 TKO loss vs. Kamaru Usman, Dec. 19
R5 TKO win (rib injury) vs. Tyron Woodley, Sept. 2020
UD5 loss in Usman rematch, Nov. 2021
UD5 victory over friend-turned-foe Jorge Masvidal, Mar. 2022
While the division’s current champion isn’t the only one with aspirations of becoming a two-weight world champion before his career is over, Covington showed the awareness he’s got plenty of work to do at 170lbs before thinking about other pursuits during Wednesday’s media day. Time is of the essence, though.
As far as the division’s top-15 rankings are concerned, the only older contenders have either beaten him before (Usman did twice) or find themselves being unwittingly served up as challenges for younger prospects to test themselves against.
36: Michael Chiesa and Neil Magny
37: Gilbert Burns vs. Jack Della Maddelena on Mar. 9
40: Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, vs. Rakhmonov this weekend
That’s an uncomfortable position to find yourself in, considering this weekend’s backup Belal Muhammad [2] has already leapfrogged Colby in the rankings while dangerous Kazakh contender Shavkat Rakhmonov [5] continues surging too.
Where does he go if he falls short, and it isn’t particularly competitive this time around? There is no shame in suffering two competitive defeats by a future Hall of Famer in former champion Usman, but Covington’s inactivity could have cost him the best spot to seize gold at a time where the 170lb landscape remains in flux.
If that’s the case, he’ll only have himself to blame.
Picture source: Getty Images
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