Colby Covington doesn’t see his latest loss as a legitimate loss.
The official result of Saturday’s UFC Tampa main event was a TKO win due to a doctor stoppage for Joaquin Buckley, who battered Covington with hard punches that opened up a gnarly cut over Covington’s right eye early in the fight. By Round 3, Covington’s face was covered in blood and a ringside physician ruled that Covington could not continue.
UFC CEO Dana White later told reporters he believed if the bout was held in Las Vegas, the doctor would not have stopped the fight. In a behind-the-scenes video posted to Covington’s YouTube channel, the three-time UFC title challenger agreed when told of White’s comments as he was being stitched up.
“That’s what I’m going to say, too,” Covington said. “Bullshit. It was building, a five-round fight.”
In a subsequent interview, Covington pointed to the relative short-notice nature of the fight (he stepped in to replace Ian Machado Garry on a month’s notice after Garry was reassigned to fight Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310) and that he doesn’t feel Buckley was close to putting him away as reasons to be encouraged by his performance.
“We’re going to be back stronger than ever,” Covington said. “This is just the beginning for me. 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 that there’s still a lot of fight in me and the best is 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 could see him breathing out of his mouth, I was starting to catch him with more shots, so it’s unfortunate that they stopped it. Even Dana came out and said if that was in Vegas, that would have never been stopped, so I took his hardest shots and they weren’t nothing. They didn’t faze me at all. I was walking right down. So we’ll come back stronger.”
It’s unclear exactly what strike opened up the cut on Covington’s forehead, but he mentioned that a clash of heads could have been the culprit for the cut that eventually led to the end of the fight.
Though Buckley can now lay claim to a six-fight win streak, Covington doesn’t believe it was Buckley who truly beat him.
“We came in close contact, and I felt like there was a headbutt, and as soon as it cut in the first round, I couldn’t see,” Covington said. “I had blurred vision, I was seeing three different people, I was like, f*ck, which one do I punch? I didn’t know what to do, I was kind of confused, but I knew I had to keep fighting. I had to give the UFC and the fans a show. That’s what they pay their hard-earned money to come for and I’m a warrior, we’re gladiators. I’m not going to stop.
“I’ve had way worse in fights than a little cut over my eye, so it’s unfortunate that the doctor stopped the fight like that because if we’re in Vegas, I know the fight gets to keep going. I feel like I was really just starting to gain momentum, like I was starting to wear him out, I could see him breathing out of his mouth. There wasn’t as much volume at that point, so I feel like it was going to be my fight in the championship rounds, so it was an unfortunate stop and I feel like the doctor is the one that beat me tonight. I didn’t feel like I lost to another opponent.”
Chael Sonnen, also a three-time UFC title challenger, was in Covington’s corner at Amalie Arena on Saturday and he praised Covington for his toughness. He told Covington that he saw the action turning in Round 3.
“Your kicks were on point tonight,” Sonnen said. “He hit you, those were hard shots, and it was hard for anybody to see because you just took them. Even us in the corner were going, ‘I guess it didn’t hurt him, he’s still going forward.’ Your takedowns, you even got your head stuck in the middle, but you were working your way out, getting your hands locked.
“It was great, everything was going great, the tide was turning. That does not count, I do not accept that, not at all, man. That was a great fight and you fought really hard.”
