Colby Covington claims headbutt brought about fight-ending lower at UFC Tampa

Colby Covington thinks beneath completely different circumstances, he would have gotten his hand raised at UFC on ESPN 63.

Covington (17-5 MMA, 12-5 UFC) suffered a third-round physician stoppage TKO to Joaquin Buckley (21-6 MMA, 11-4 UFC) final month at Amalie Enviornment in Tampa, Fla. Covington was badly lower on his proper eyelid early within the battle, which finally pressured medical doctors to intervene and cease the competition.

If it weren’t for his lower ending the battle, Covington thinks Buckley was beginning to decelerate by Spherical 3.

“The battle, you realize, we have been simply getting warmed up,” Covington mentioned on his YouTube channel. “All people is aware of I’m a fourth and fifth-round fighter, I simply get began in these championship rounds. I might’ve completed him in that fourth and fifth spherical. He was respiratory heavy, he didn’t have rather more to supply, he wasn’t going to have the ability to have a lot quantity in these final rounds so, I really feel like I used to be going to have the ability to take over in that battle. It was an in depth aggressive battle.

“He didn’t outclass me, he didn’t drop me, he didn’t actually damage me. There was just a little lower that occurred. I rewatched the movie, it was like minute two, and it was like a headbutt proper off his hip or one thing. However, it wasn’t from a punch. That’s the one factor that basically restricted my potential to be at one hundred pc. It’s unlucky that DEI physician stopped the battle early. I really feel just like the battle was simply getting began, and there was much more that wanted to be settled in there.”

Covington has now misplaced two-straight fights for the primary time in his profession. He known as for a matchup towards former title challenger Gilbert Burns, who agreed to the concept.