Rivalries: Colby Covington

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Colby Covington courted controversy, married it and used the unholy union to spearhead a career-altering marketing campaign within the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

“Chaos” will attempt to rebound from his latest setback when he collides with American Top Team’s Jorge Masvidal in the UFC 272 main event on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Covington, 34, enters the cage having won eight of his past 10 bouts. He has compiled a 11-3 record across 14 appearances since he joined the organization in 2014—a run that includes victories over Mike Pyle, Max Griffin and Rafael dos Anjos.

As Covington makes final preparations for his grudge match with Masvidal, a look at some of the rivalries that have helped shape his career to this point:

Warlley Alves

“The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” Season 3 winner submitted Covington with a first-round guillotine choke as part of the UFC 194 undercard on Dec. 12, 2015 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The unbeaten Clovis, California, native checked out 86 seconds into Round 1. Alves pressed forward against the American Top Team-trained wrestler, conceded a takedown and quickly returned to his feet after eating an elbow. Covington remained engaged in the clinch, allowing the Brazilian to jump to guillotine position. He tried unsuccessfully to slam his way out of Alves’ clutches and had no recourse but to tap. It remains the only submission loss of Covington’s 19-fight career.

Demian Maia

Covington continued his ascent on the welterweight ladder and stepped over the onetime Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships gold medalist on the way up, as he laid claim to a unanimous decision in the UFC Fight Night 119 co-main event on Oct. 28, 2017 at Geraldo Jose de Almeida Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Scores were 29-27, 30-27 and 30-26. Maia outstruck the NCAA All-American wrestler through much of the first round, opening a cut below his right eyebrow with a series of clubbing left hands. However, the success was short-lived. Covington hit his stride in the middle stanza, sprawled out of attempted takedowns from the weary Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and picked him apart from the outside. He moved forward in Round 3, pressured and bloodied the stationary Maia with punches, denied his bid for takedowns and made him pay with heavy ground-and-pound in the waning moments. Afterward, Covington went on his now-infamous diatribe in which he called Brazil “a dump” and referred to the crowd as “filthy animals.”

Robbie Lawler

The audacious Covington kept the former titleholder guessing with takedowns and high-volume striking, as he cemented his position as the No. 1 contender inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s welterweight division with a unanimous decision in the UFC on ESPN 5 headliner on Aug. 3, 2019 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Scores were 50-44, 50-45 and 50-45. Lawler had no answers across five mostly lopsided rounds. Covington more often than not zigged when “Ruthless Robbie” zagged and generated some mind-boggling statistics in the process. The onetime NCAA All-American wrestler completed 10 takedowns and attempted a UFC record 541 total strikes, connecting on 201 of them—all while more than tripling Lawler’s output. It was yet another dominant performance from Covington and proved that he had just as much bite as bark.

Tyron Woodley

The death-by-a-thousand-cuts approach once again worked wonders for Covington, who minimized risk, maximized results and disposed of the onetime champion and former American Top Team stablemate in the UFC Fight Night 178 main event on Sept. 19, 2020 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Thoroughly outclassed for 20-plus minutes, Woodley yielded to an apparent rib injury 1:19 into the fifth round. Pressure and output powered Covington’s engines. The MMA Masters representative overwhelmed Woodley with volume, pursued a frustrating clinch and incorporated takedowns and ground-and-pound once fatigue and resignation took hold. By the time it was over, Covington had outlanded “The Chosen One” by a stunning 232-67 margin and exacted a considerable toll, mentally and physically. Woodley reached his breaking point in Round 5, where the snap, crackle and pop of cartilage, bone or both prompted his surrender.

Kamaru Usman

“The Nigerian Nightmare” maintained his stranglehold on the undisputed Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight crown with a unanimous decision over Covington in the UFC 268 headliner on Nov. 6, 2021 at Madison Square Garden in New York. All three cageside judges scored it for Usman: 48-47, 48-47 and 49-46. An understandably cautious Covington—he succumbed to fifth-round punches from the champion in their December 2019 encounter at UFC 245—took some time to get going. Usman floored him twice with crushing left hooks in the second round, but the MMA Masters export managed to survive and once again pushed “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 21 winner to his limit. Covington started to string punches together in the third round, wobbled his rival with uppercuts on more than one occasion and even forced him backward with a body kick. Usman stayed composed in the face of significant pressure, leaned on his jab and made his way to the finish line with his title reign alive and a 2-0 lead in their head-to-head series.