Colby Covington initially cited ring rust after nearly two years off as a reason for his lackluster performance against Leon Edwards at UFC 296.
Now, the always-outspoken welterweight claims he also suffered an injury early in the fight this past Saturday night.
During an appearance on the PBD podcast, Covington alleged he broke his foot when Edwards’ elbow blocked the first kick he threw. Covington said he knew the injury was bad, but he couldn’t tell his coaches in the corner, fearing the info would get picked up during the broadcast and the information would get to Edwards.
“I broke my foot in like the first 30 seconds of the fight, that people don’t know about yet – the X-rays will start coming out,” Covington said. “The first minute of the fight. I have the picture on my phone, the exact moment where it landed on his elbow.
“You feel it swelling up. At the end of the first round, you’re like man that hurts. Usually I sit on the stool, and I didn’t want to sit down on the stool. Landed right on the right elbow, the top of the foot.”
From the very start of the fight, Covington did not engage much with Edwards, sitting on his backfoot near the cage as the reigning UFC welterweight champion fired shots at him from the outside.
Edwards also connected with a series of nasty leg kicks that caused massive bruising on Covington’s thigh and slowed down the former All-American wrestler.
In the aftermath of the loss, Covington believes the foot injury affected his performance far more than anything thrown by Edwards in the five-round fight.
“I wasn’t really able to step on it, so that’s why he was landing a couple of kicks on my right thigh,” Covington said. “Because my left foot was broken, so I was kind of putting all my weight on my right thigh. That’s terrible.
“Towards the end of the fight, I was like just deal with the pain and start lifting up your right leg and start checking some of these kicks. He didn’t start kicking after the fourth round, because he was feeling that I was catching his timing with the kicks, and he didn’t want to break his leg on my knee.”
Covington ultimately dropped the decision, his third loss in three attempts to win the undisputed UFC belt. Immediately afterward, he pushed the narrative that he deserved the victory. UFC CEO Dana White disagreed, saying Covington looked “slow and old” in a fight where Edwards won four of five rounds on the scorecards.
Covington fell to 2-3 in his past five UFC fights, but he believes his foot injury was the real culprit behind his poor showing.
“It’s tough,” he said. “It limits your mobility. I couldn’t really move after that. I was kind of stuck in place, and I was just trying to make sure that I could get through the fight. I never quit.”
