Colby Covington's week went from bad to worse yesterday as he suffered his second loss in a matter of days.
On Saturday he was brutalized by Joaquin Buckley before doctors stopped their UFC Tampa main event due to a gruesome cut on his right eye. He insists that if the fight had been allowed to go ahead, he would have turned things around, and promotion boss Dana White believes this would have happened in a different situation.
However, he has now lost two in a row and has fallen to a low of ninth in the welterweight rankings. And his week got even worse when he was eliminated from the World Series of Poker just hours after his loss in Florida.
Colby Covington was brutally stopped by Joaquin Buckley
After nearly a year since his last attempt at the 170-pound world title against Leon Edwards, Colby Covington returned to the octagon on Saturday night. He took the fight against Joaquin Buckley on short notice after Ian Machado Garry was called up to save UFC 310 a week earlier.
And the controversial former champion seemed to take a few minutes to dust off cobwebs, starting at a rare slow pace while Buckley seemed to land at will. And after a failed takedown attempt in the first round, he suffered a cut that continued to worsen throughout the fight.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
By the end of the second round, doctors had examined the cut and warned Covington that if it worsened at all, the fight would be stopped. And when the fight got going again toward the end of the third, referee Dan Miragliotta called them back to check again.
The ringside doctor made a chilling prediction that he might lose his eyelid if the fight continued and that the fight would have to be stopped. It was a frustrating end to the UFC year and saw Covington slide further down the rankings.
Dana White believes the UFC Tampa fight may not have been stopped in another state
During the post-fight press conference, UFC CEO Dana White argued that while the injury was cause for concern, the fight likely would have continued had they been in Nevada. Florida gets regular fight events, but not at the same rate as Nevada, where most of the big shows take place.
“I was curious to see how it would have gone if it had gone five rounds. There's no doubt it was a bad cut,” he told the media after the fight. “But that fight doesn't stop in Vegas – that fight is 100% in Vegas.”
“Love him or hate him, the man is a dog, tough as hell, hit big shots to the body, big shots to the head that would have knocked a lot of people out… Colby is durable and tough, but then If you get cut, anything can happen.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
“It definitely bothered him, and literally as soon as the corner would fix it, he waits to walk back out and rips it open again, causing him to start bleeding again… That alone tells him he was bothered a lot.” of the cut.
“Listen, Colby is an older guy who fights every now and then, he's always durable and always strong… Did you hear the body shots he got hit with tonight, and the head shots he took?
“That stuff would have stopped other guys, Colby is tough, but I also feel like Colby wasn't too p***** to have that fight stopped by the cut.”
After a horror injury, Colby Covington loses at the World Series of Poker
Immediately after losing the fight, Covington headed to the Bahamas for the big World Series of Poker event on Atlantis Paradise Island. The tournament would see a guaranteed winner of $50 million in the Super Main Event.
However, soon after arriving, the UFC star was eliminated from the tournament. It's unclear which hand saw him lose, but wearing sunglasses, large headphones, a Nike tracksuit and a hat with the Bang Energy logo, he quickly got up and left the hallway.
Fans were quick to mock the former champion for his latest defeat, with one joking: “The WSOP social team definitely said he was knocked out on purpose.” Covington is an established player and has played at a very high level during his time away from training.
He streams his online casino gambling activities to a large audience on Twitch, where he discusses his career and plays games with fans.
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