Henry Cejudo doesn’t see Colby Covington getting back on the winning track anytime soon.
“Chaos” returns to the octagon for the first time in a year when he fights Joaquin Buckley in the main event of UFC Tampa on Dec. 14. The former interim champion and three-time undisputed title challenger steps in on short-notice as a replacement for Ian Machado Garry, who was rescheduled to fight Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310.
The past few matchups have been a roller-coaster for Covington, who has only lost to elite competition in his past five fights, but also only beaten Jorge Masvidal and Tyron Woodley, two fighters who are no longer on the active roster.
On Cejudo and Kamaru Usman’s Pound 4 Pound podcast, Usman broke down his thoughts on the matchup between Buckley and his longtime rival Covington.
“I think it’s a very good stylistic matchup because right now you’ve got Joaquin Buckley, he’s going to run off combinations, trying to land those big shots to potentially get you out of there,” Usman said. “Colby Covington is a guy that you could potentially get with the big shot.
“But Colby also is the other side of that coin. He can get ahold of you, drag you down if he utilizes his wrestling. Because we saw his last fight, he didn’t exactly utilize that wrestling until the later rounds when he got a little bit more comfortable and now he’s been out for quite some time, again, so who knows?”
Buckley is currently on a five-fight win streak that coincided with a move down to the welterweight division in 2023. In his most recent outing, Buckley scored a third-round knockout of longtime contender Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson to jump to No. 10 in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings.
Given Buckley’s rise and Covington’s seeming decline, Cejudo favors Buckley to finish Covington in Tampa.
“The style of Colby Covington is so predictable now and the fact that they’ve seen him lose time and time again, whether it’s with Leon Edwards or yourself, it’s there,” Cejudo said. “Once you stop Colby’s takedowns, things will fall into place.
“Look at how Joaquin covers distance. Double fakes, dipping in to eventually stop a dude like Wonderboy, so I’m high on this kid. This kid is dangerous. I can see Colby Covington losing via stoppage to a guy like Joaquin Buckley and I truly do believe that.”
Usman agreed with Cejudo’s analysis, but suggested that Buckley could have a harder time of it than Cejudo expects.
“All of those things work great when you’re fighting a guy that’s not a wrestler, that can’t change levels,” Usman said. “Colby will—Instead of evading the way Wonderboy was, what do we do as wrestlers? We change levels, cut you down, and so we’ll see.
“Only time will tell because Colby’s been out for a while and historically-speaking time hasn’t really been the great factor for Colby Covington in between these fights. So I don’t know. I like the fight, though, I like that fight. I’m actually excited to see that fight.”
