It should come as no surprise that Belal Muhammad is rooting against Colby Covington at UFC on ESPN 63.
Covington (17-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) returns from a one-year layoff against Joaquin Buckley (20-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) in Saturday’s main event (ESPN2, ESPN+) at Amalie Arena.
UFC welterweight champion Muhammad and Covington have had their fair share of spats throughout the years, but a fight between them never materialized. Muhammad hopes Buckley does serious damage to Covington.
“I’m hoping that Buckley breaks his jaw,” Muhammad said on his “Remember The Show” podcast. “I hope that Buckley puts him out cold, and I think that Buckley can put him out cold. Colby’s striking is terrible, his wrestling looked awful his last fight. I think Buckley is athletic enough to defend those takedowns.”
Muhammad went on to break down Buckley’s path to victory, and what he has to be wary of when it comes to Covington.
“If Buckley doesn’t get crazy – he throws a lot of wide hooks that leaves openings for shots underneath, he just can’t let Colby push him to the fence,” Muhammad said. “He can’t let Colby keep him on the fence and wear him down. In his last fight against ‘Wonderboy,’ he was getting a little bit tired, but I think that was more so because he was offensive wrestling ‘Wonderboy.’ He was taking ‘Wonderboy’ down, ‘Wonderboy’ would get up, he was trying to hold him down, and you don’t really need to hold Colby down.
“You don’t need to shoot on Colby because Colby can’t strike. There’s nothing he’s going to be throwing at you that’s going to be scary. It’s not going to hurt so, just take all of his punches, stand there in the middle, take one and then give him one, and show him that there’s levels to striking. I think that Buckley can finish him, knock him out. We’ve seen Colby have his jaw broken before by Kamaru (Usman), who sucks with striking. So, I think Buckley who has way more power, way better boxing can put Colby to sleep.”
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