With a third title shot probably still a way off, Colby Covington appears bent on filling his dance card with blockbuster grudge matches for the foreseeable future.
In the main event of UFC 272 on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, “Chaos” took a one-sided decision over former roommate and training partner Jorge Masvidal. As most observers expected, Masvidal had no answer for the wrestling chops and relentless pace of Covington, who won at least four of five rounds on all three judges’ scorecards.
The problem the brash Oregonian now faces is that he is the clear No. 2 man in the division after Kamaru Usman, against whom he is now 0-2. The problem the Ultimate Fighting Championship faces is that it will be a long time, if ever, before a third Usman-Covington fight is an easy sell, and in the meantime, Covington will continue to knock off potential challengers unless otherwise occupied. Fortunately, before he and Masvidal even landed in Las Vegas last week, Covington had already been hard at work antagonizing his next targeted opponent.
In the wake of UFC 272, here are some matches that ought to be made for Covington and the other main card winners.
Colby Covington vs. Dustin Poirier
Covington has been needling his former American Top Team teammate for some time now, including some truly below-the-belt shots at one of the most universally liked guys in the sport. While calling out a fighter in a lower weight class might seem gauche even by Covington’s usual standards, this matchup actually makes sense on several levels. For one, the size difference should be negligible, as Covington is an undersized welterweight, while Poirier is a heavily built lightweight who has been open about the difficulty of his weight cut — physically, he is simply not the same as the 22-year-old who got down to 145 pounds in World Extreme Cagefighting. Second, while Poirier is firmly entrenched as a Top 5 lightweight, that title is on hold until Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje fight in May, and if Oliveira defends successfully, another title shot is going to be out of Poirier’s reach for quite some time to come. In other words, both Covington and Poirier could use a marquee matchup that doesn’t disrupt their respective divisions too badly.
Rafael dos Anjos vs. Rafael Fiziev
Dos Anjos made the best of a difficult situation on Saturday, absolutely thrashing short-notice replacement opponent Renato Carneiro in the 160-pound co-main event. The former lightweight champ looked every bit his vintage self as he bullied, battered and bloodied “Moicano” for five rounds. It may have been the most one-sided beatdown on any UFC main card so far this year, and leaves “RDA” 2-0 since dropping back down from welterweight. In a somewhat related PR coup, the search for an opponent last week ended up with dos Anjos in a figurative staring contest with Islam Makhachev, who ended up blinking first. Dos Anjos is suddenly a person of interest again in the division he once ruled, but after two straight makeshift matchups, could use a win over a rising contender on a full camp. Fiziev, who had been scheduled to face dos Anjos on Saturday until one of his cornermen came down with COVID, is a dazzling striker and one of the division’s breakout stars over the last two years. It’s still the matchup to make.
Bryce Mitchell vs. Giga Chikadze
“Thug Nasty” authored perhaps the most impressive performance of any fighter at UFC 272, all things considered. Facing easily his most accomplished opponent to date, Mitchell made it look easy, shellacking Edson Barboza for three rounds, two of which were possibly 10-8 affairs. Not only was his expected grappling advantage very much in evidence on Saturday, Mitchell had surprising success on the feet against one of the greatest strikers in MMA history, knocking Barboza down with a clean punch in the first round and landing effective strikes in all three — until the point at which he chose to bring the fight to the ground. After the biggest win of his career, Mitchell delivered a charmingly rambling postfight interview that hit most of the right notes and will probably go down as an important milestone in his path to stardom, assuming he keeps winning. Next up for the 27-year-old Arkansas native should be another Top 10 opponent, preferably one who is likely to help deliver the kind of barnburner that could headline a fight night, or even serve as a pay-per-view co-main. The once-beaten Chikadze, who had been arguably the hottest prospect in the division before running into a speed bump against Calvin Kattar in his last outing, fits the bill perfectly.
Kevin Holland vs. Daniel Rodriguez
Holland successfully blazed a trail to the welterweight division on Saturday, enduring a few nail-biting moments against Alex Oliveira in a wild first round before dropping “Cowboy” with a short right hand early in the second and finishing the job with a barrage of elbow strikes. With the TKO win over a solid veteran, the former middleweight and Sherdog 2020 “Breakthrough Fighter of the Year” is right in the thick of things in his new weight class. While he isn’t quite ready for the contender discussion yet in the brutally deep 170-pound division, he might well be with one more convincing win. In a similar position is “D-Rod,” who is 6-1 since joining the UFC two years ago. Each has what the other needs: Rodriguez’s credible welterweight résumé staked against Holland’s bigger name value is a fair proposition for both men. That they appear to be making this matchup on their own is even better — better, certainly, than Holland’s initial callout of the UFC’s other “Cowboy,” Donald Cerrone.
Sergey Spivak vs. Curtis Blaydes-Chris Daukaus winner
In the pay-per-view main card opener, Spivak made short work of Greg Hardy, grounding the massive former defensive lineman with an impressive array of judo throws and completely dominating on the ground. In just 2 minutes, 16 seconds, referee Marc Goddard was pulling Spivak off of the turtled “Prince of War.” While Spivak was a heavy favorite for a reason and the outcome was not too surprising given Hardy’s well-established deficiencies on the ground, it was still impressive to see “The Polar Bear” hoist a man who probably outweighed him by 40 pounds for an effortless-looking mat return. Spivak is now 5-3 in the UFC, and since getting blitzed by Walt Harris in his Octagon debut, has lost only to Top 10 fighters in Marcin Tybura and Tom Aspinall. Through it all, the 27-year-old Moldovan has shown steady improvement in his confidence, conditioning and technique, and has earned another shot at a ranked fighter. Blaydes and Daukaus face off in the headliner of UFC on ESPN 33 on March 26, and the winner would be a suitable next opponent for Spivak, not to mention an interesting matchup, as his well-rounded skill set would make for an interesting contrast against either Blaydes’ elite wrestling or Daukaus’ sharp boxing.