For the first time in his pro career, Colby Covington is currently coming off of back-to-back losses. The former UFC interim welterweight champion returned this past weekend in Tampa where he was beaten by the surging Joaquin Buckley.
“Chaos” has already spoken about the defeat where he outlined the significance of taking the fight on short notice and the cut that he suffered above his right eye which eventually led to the doctor waving the fight off in the third round. Covington stated that he was only just getting going at the time of the stoppage but up until that point, “New Mansa” was clearly and comfortably winning the fight.
Many fans and fellow fighters were also very critical about Covington’s previous outing at UFC 296 last December where he was totally shut out by Leon Edwards in a welterweight title fight. Having been 15-1 heading into his first meeting with Kamaru Usman in 2019 to now being 17-5, some may simply put his decline in form down to his age.
At 36-years old, it’s not surprising that Covington would begin to slow down especially as a fighter whose biggest weapon is his cardio and output. Josh Thomson, however, believes that the controversial welterweight might not be preparing as well as he could be.
Covington’s nine years at American Top Team in Florida ended in 2020 following several altercations with some of his teammates who had made it very clear that they no longer wanted him on the team due to some of his comments about them. The likes of Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier have remained at ATT whilst Covington has since moved to MMA Masters in Miami.
Thomson, who is a former fighter turned commentator, said on the Weighing In Podcast that he believes this is taking away from the three-time title challenger.
“I’m going to simply say that once you’ve trained at a prestigious gym like American Top Team [ATT], and then you find your way out of it, running your own camp in a smaller facility without many top-level people to train with, especially after leaving a gym with a plethora of world-class fighters…. it’s noticeable. You saw it tonight. I don’t know if it’s the age, because I know he’s older, but let’s be honest, within two fights, he doesn’t look like the same person since he left American Top Team.”
Thomson believes that not having the kind of people that he needs to really push him has taken away what made Covington so effective in the first place. If he was going to beat Buckley on Saturday night, he needed to put the pace on him but if anything, it was the other way round.
“Those are the rounds where you’re trying to catch your second, sometimes third, wind. But not having the talent that he needs to help push his pace in training is what I feel like I’m seeing right now. I’m seeing a fighter who is having a hard time setting a pace inside the cage against world-class fighters because he doesn’t have world-class fighters to train with anymore.”
