Colby Covington is a very divisive fighter. He is one of the first fighters that I am aware of that intentionally set himself up as a "heel" character meaning that he says and does things in interviews and on social media that is purposely meant to get under the skin of other fighters and even the fans. It was wildly successful as a strategy for him as well because he was able to back up his trash talk in the octagon.
Some would argue, I think correctly, that this opened doors for him that otherwise he wouldn't have accomplished including getting a shot at the title and then losing multiple times.
He is still in the picture as far as championship is concerned but only by a thread, and as one of the "older" guys in the UFC, despite winning most of his fights, he is one step away from being shown the door and this is why a victory for him in upcoming the upcoming welterweight bout in Tampa.
Covington, despite being a fan favorite, has been quite inactive in the past several years, he is also 2-3 out of his last 5 fights. This isn't to say that he is on a losing streak because two of those losses were to very active champions in Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards, but an "L" is and "L' as they say.
Colby has lost a lot of steam as far as his marketability is concerned as well and much of this is rumored to be because of some sort of bad blood between him and the boss man Dana White. Colby's foul-mouthed antics aren't just an act, apparently he is very abrasive and difficult to work with if you are not in his inner circle on his fight team. This might fly for someone like Conor McGregor who regularly brings in record-breaking crowds and revenue, but Colby's performances just haven't been up to scratch to the point where he brings the people into the arenas in droves and more importantly, he is a mid-range draw as far as pay-per-views are concerned.
This lack of marketability is probably a big part of the reason why he is headlining a Fight Night instead of appearing near the top of the main card on a PPV, and while I am sure he isn't happy about it, he honestly needs to take what he can get. His fight against Joaquin Buckley, who is on a multiple-fight win-streak, is of paramount importance for "Chaos" Covington, because anything other than an explosive win could put him completely out of the picture and perhaps result in his retirement or transfer to something like Bellator.
At 37 years of age, Colby is nearing what is considered by most to be his expiration date as a fighter in UFC as few have made it past that point and managed to still be someone that is regularly in big fights. Outside of a division like heavyweight where there are too few fighters to really buff up the ranks without just letting anyone who qualifies in the door, the UFC weight divisions trim the fat on a regular basis and the older guys, who have already had a run to the top, are normally the first names on the chopping block.
I like Covington and would like to see him pull out a win, but this fight doesn't look to be in his favor and there are a lot of people including me that feel as though this fight has been specifically chosen for Colby to lose in order to propel Joaquin Buckley to the title picture as well as to push Colby towards the exit. Rumor has it that Dana White has been encouraging Covington to retire for over a year, but Colby simply refuses to do so.
Covington's past performance against Leon Edwards, which was his last fight, is arguably the worst performance in Colby's career. Fans expect Colby to be an all out striking machine with endless cardio, but that is not what we got in that fight. It was sluggish and slow and Colby didn't seem to step on the gas pedal until the 5th round when it was evident that he was losing on all the score cards. Colby did something rare after the fight and made excuses for his loss claiming that he broke his foot in the early rounds and this made him slower. Whether that is true or not I don't know but I do know that Chaos has never been one to make excuses and his stock dropped a lot in my world after that. I feel that when a fighter decisively loses, that they need to take it on the chin and promise to do better next time.... then actually do better next time.
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Don't know why he was acting dejected and surprised, it was obvious that he lost that fight
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Well, the upcoming event in Tampa, Florida is the "next time" in question and if Covington does anything other than absolutely swarm Buckley and pull off an impressive win, I feel it will be the last time. The welterweight division is absolutely stacked, perhaps the most talent-filled division in all of UFC and Colby, currently ranked at number 6, will possibly drop out of the top-10 with another loss and therefore, perhaps drop off the roster altogether.
Hopefully Covington is aware of this looming potential disaster and is preparing for this fight like never before in his life. I look forward to it and hope the man can make an impressive show of it rather than getting shown the door in shame.