Colby Covington entering UFC Fight Night main event with 'chip on my shoulder'

It has been 12 months since mixed marital arts fans last saw Colby Covington compete in the cage but the polarizing welterweight star is set for his return this weekend in a UFC Fight Night headliner near his own backyard when he takes on streaking Joaquin Buckley in the final UFC bout of the year.   

Covington wasn’t originally slated to fight at UFC’s 2024 finale, but after Ian Machado Garry was removed from the Dec. 14 event at Amalie Arena and bumped up to a title eliminator against Shavkat Rakhmonov this past weekend at UFC 310, a spot alongside Buckley opened up and the UFC came calling.

“I had to come out and save the day,” Covington recently told Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter. “They needed a big main event for this Fight Night up in Tampa, Fla., which is right up the street from where I live in Miami, so who better than me to come save the day for the company and sell tickets and put asses in seats.”

Covington last fought at UFC 296 when he challenged then-champion Leon Edwards for welterweight gold and lost a lacklustre unanimous decision four rounds to one.

“That wasn’t me and it wasn’t a reflection of who I am and how I fight,” the former interim titleholder said of his performance. “I felt embarrassed. Trust me, it’s been a hard year to get over that. I’ve had a big chip on my shoulder. I want to rewrite that wrong, I want to rewrite that history and show that was just a one-time, fluke off-performance. This weekend is that opportunity to get back out there on short notice against an up-and-coming surging contender.”

Covington said he was dealing with altitude sickness during his fight with Edwards and that he broke his foot in three places early in the opening round.

The 36-year-old has only fought once per year in each of the past six years, presuming Saturday’s main event occurs as planned, and has alternated wins and losses dating back to 2019. 

Covington, still ranked No. 6 in the welterweight division, will need to snap Buckley’s five-fight winning streak if he hopes to avoid the first two-fight skid of his career. Three of Covington’s four pro losses were in title fights to defending champions (twice to Kamaru Usman and once to Edwards).

Buckley is ranked as the No. 9 contender at 170 pounds and is coming off a knockout of Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in October. He is 10-4 since debuting in the UFC since 2020; Covington has only fought four times during that stretch going 2-2.