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Colby Covington

Chaos

From: Springfield, Oregon, United States
Born: Feb 22, 1988
Height: 180cm
Weight: 77.1kg

Colby Covington is an American professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the welterweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). As of  March 6, 2022, he is ranked #1 in the UFC welterweight rankings.

The Early Days

Colby Covington was born on February 22, 1988, in Clovis, California. His family moved from California to Oregon in 1996. Colby comes from a wrestling background since his father was also a wrestler.

Colby wrestled for the Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, where he won the 171 lb state championship as a senior in 2006. After his high school days, he started attending Iowa Central Community College, where he won the 2007 165 lb national junior college wrestling title. An interesting fact is that his roommate at the time was the future UFC light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones.

Covington continued his wrestling career at the University of Iowa; however, he did not wrestle much for the University of Iowa since he was arrested for eluding police and driving under the influence. He was suspended for one year and was later convinced by his coach Jim Zalesky to transfer to Oregon State University. During his time at the Oregon State University, Colby placed fifth as a senior in the NCAA tournament and earned All-American honors.

Colby was also a two-time Pac-10 Conference champion at 174-pounds and a 2013 FILA Grappling no-gi world champion.

MMA Career

Covington started his mixed martial arts (MMA) career in 2011 at the American Top Team after being recruited by Dan Lambert. He competed predominantly in regional promotions throughout the Midwestern United States, compiling a record of 5-0, until he signed with the UFC in 2014.

After compiling a record of 7-1 in the promotion, he was set to fight Demian Maia on October 28, 2017, at UFC Fight Night 119, for the last fight of his contract. Colby won the fight via unanimous decision.

Covington is known for his trash-talking and controversial comments both inside and outside of the octagon. His pre and post-fight conferences are never dull. Covington has been outspoken about his political views and has been critical of both the UFC and its athletes, who have expressed liberal opinions.

While Colby is not to everyone’s liking, there might be a reason why that is. It was rumored that Colby would be struck from the UFC roster since he wasn’t that interesting to the UFC fans; therefore, Colby developed a “character” that almost everyone dislikes to a certain degree. However, many UFC fans wanted to see him beat up in a fight and therefore made him infamous, which looks like was his goal all along.

Colby eventually signed a new contract with the UFC. On June 9, 2018, Covington defeated Rafael dos Anjos by unanimous decision to win the interim UFC Welterweight Championship.

On July 24, 2018, Covington was stripped of his interim title due to inactivity. He had not fought since winning the title nine months earlier due to nasal surgery.

In December 2018, it was revealed that Covington had been cleared of any potential anti-doping violation stemming from an out-of-competition drug test taken in April 2018.

On June 9, 2019, at UFC 238, Covington faced Champion Robbie Lawler in the co-main event. He won the fight via unanimous decision and set the record for the most strikes thrown in a UFC bout, with 541 strikes.

Soon after, Colby had one of his most famous rivalries to date. Colby was set to fight against current UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman for the UFC Welterweight Championship on December 14, 2019, at UFC 245.

The fight was a close one, with the two almost evenly matched. Going into the final round, one judge had Covington winning 39–37, another had it tied at 38–38, and the other had it 39–37 in favor of Usman; however, Usman showed why he is the current pound-for-pound fighter in the world and knocked Colby down two times. Colby even suffered a broken jaw during the fight.

Colby went on to fight against Tyron Woodley on September 19, 2020, who he defeated via fourth-round TKO. On November 6, 2021, at UFC 268, Colby had a rematch against Kamaru Usman for the UFC Welterweight Championship. Despite another close fight, Colby lost via unanimous decision.

On March 5, 2022, at UFC 272, Colby faced another rival and ex-friend and teammate Jorge Masvidal who he defeated via unanimous decision.

Colby is one of the best fighters the UFC has ever soon; however, he describes himself as a super-villain” of the UFC and often trash talks his opponents. He was also criticized for calling Brazil a “dump” and referred to the Brazilian crowd as “filthy animals” in a post-fight interview. He was also quite vocal against BLM, which often earned him negative attention from the crowd.

This fighter profile was last checked and updated on: July 31, 2022