Colby Covington


Colby Ray Covington is an American mixed martial artist. He is a former interim UFC Welterweight Champion. As of December 14, 2019, he is #2 in the UFC welterweight rankings.

Early life

Covington was born in Clovis, California on February 22, 1988. His parents are Noelle and Brad Covington, and he has two sisters named Candace and Callie. The family moved from California to Oregon when he was eight years old. His father was a wrestler during his time at the Oregon Institute of Technology and Southern Oregon University.

Wrestling career

As a wrestler at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Covington lettered all four years and won the 171 lb state championship as a senior. He committed to Arizona State University but his test scores were not up to par, so he went to Iowa Central Community College, where he won the 165 lb national junior college wrestling title as a true freshman with a 34–0 record. His roommate, at the time, was future UFC champion Jon Jones.
Following his championship season at Iowa Central, Covington transferred to the noted wrestling program at the University of Iowa. On August 10, 2007, he was arrested for eluding police and driving under the influence, having registered a BAC of 0.255, over three times the legal limit of 0.08. He later said, "That was a real all-time low in my life, something I really wish I could take back." Due to his arrest, Covington was suspended from the Hawkeyes for a year, and saw limited time the next season. He looked for a fresh start, and former Hawkeyes coach Jim Zalesky convinced Covington to transfer to Oregon State University.
During his time at OSU, Covington qualified for the NCAA Tournament as a junior and as a senior, placing fifth as a senior and earning All-American honors. He also was a two-time Pac-10 Conference champion at 174-pounds. He was cited for fourth-degree assault stemming from an incident on May 23, 2010 wherein he was accused of punching two men after a verbal altercation. The Benton County District Attorney's Office did not pursue charges against Covington over the incident.
Covington graduated with a bachelor's degree in Sociology in 2011.

Mixed martial arts career

Early career

In 2011, American Top Team owner Dan Lambert was looking to boost his gym's wrestling training and Covington was recruited to help do so. Shortly after, Covington began pursuing a professional mixed martial arts career and moved to South Florida to train full-time at American Top Team. He compiled a record of 5–0 before signing with the UFC in the summer of 2014.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (2014–present)

Covington made his promotional debut against Anying Wang on August 23, 2014 at. He won the fight by TKO via punches in the closing seconds of the first round.
Covington fought Wagner Silva on November 8, 2014 at. He won the fight via submission in the third round.
Covington next faced Mike Pyle on May 23, 2015 at UFC 187, replacing an injured Sean Spencer. He won the fight via unanimous decision.
Covington faced Warlley Alves on December 12, 2015 at UFC 194. He lost the fight via submission in the first round.
Covington was expected to compete against Alex Garcia on June 18, 2016 at. However, Garcia was pulled from the fight on June 10 for undisclosed reasons and replaced by promotional newcomer Jonathan Meunier. Covington won the fight via submission in the third round.
Covington next faced promotional newcomer Max Griffin on August 20, 2016 at UFC 202. He won the fight via TKO in the third round.
Covington's next bout was against Bryan Barberena on December 17, 2016 at. He won the fight via unanimous decision.
Covington faced Dong Hyun Kim on June 17, 2017 at. He won the fight via unanimous decision.
As the final fight of his prevailing contract, Covington fought Demian Maia on October 28, 2017 at. He won the fight via unanimous decision.
Covington fought Rafael dos Anjos on June 9, 2018 at UFC 225 for the Interim UFC Welterweight Championship. He won the fight via unanimous decision.
Covington was briefly linked to a title unification bout with the then champion Tyron Woodley on September 8, 2018 at UFC 228. However, Covington was unable to compete on that date due to recent nasal surgery. As a result, UFC officials turned their attention to arranging a bout between Woodley and Darren Till to fill the headlining spot. In turn, promotional officials indicated on July 24 that Covington would be stripped of the Interim UFC Welterweight Championship, once the bout between Woodley and Till took place.
Covington returned to face Robbie Lawler in the main event of on August 3, 2019. He won the fight via a lopsided unanimous decision, setting a record for the most strikes thrown in a UFC bout with 541 strikes.
Covington faced Kamaru Usman for the UFC Welterweight Championship on December 14, 2019 at UFC 245. Covington sustained a left mandibular fracture as a result of a strike by Usman in the third round and was knocked down twice in the fifth round. The second knockdown was followed by a barrage of strikes by Usman with Covington covering up on the ground and subsequent stoppage by referee Marc Goddard resulting in technical knockout win for Usman. This fight earned him his first post fight bonus in the UFC for Fight of the Night. Going into the final round, one judge had Covington winning 39–37, another had it tied at 38-38, and the other had it 39–37 in favor of Usman.
After a long-lasting, public feud and trash talking between Covington and other American Top Team members – most notably Dustin Poirier, Jorge Masvidal and Joanna Jędrzejczyk – Covington eventually parted ways with his first mixed martial arts gym in May 2020.

Professional wrestling career

Impact Wrestling (2017)

Covington, along with other American Top Team members, made multiple appearances in Impact Wrestling, where they aligned themselves with Lashley and King Mo. In 2017, they defeated the team of Moose and Stephan Bonnar at Bound for Glory. In the buildup to the event, he hired Stevie Richards to be his strength and conditioning coach.

WrestlePro (2018)

In February 2018, Covington appeared at a WrestlePro event and defeated TyQuil Woodley, a parody character of Tyron Woodley, in a match.

Public image

Covington is an outspoken supporter of the Republican Party and President Donald Trump. After winning the Interim UFC Welterweight Championship, he stated he wanted to visit Trump at the White House to present him with the title, which he did on August 2, 2018.
He has described himself as the "super villain" of the UFC and will often try to upset people with brazen trash talking. Following his bout with Demian Maia in 2017, he called Brazil a "dump" and referred to the Brazilian crowd as "filthy animals" in the post-fight interview. In an interview with Candace Owens, Covington said that his "act" was a response to the UFC threatening to cut him before the Maia fight and stated the "Filthy Animals" speech "saved his career." Covington further embraced his villain status before his 2019 main event encounter with Robbie Lawler at UFC on ESPN 5. He used the WWE entrance theme of professional wrestler Kurt Angle—which is regularly punctuated with crowd chants of "You suck!"—as his entrance music; Angle had given Covington permission to use the theme. With two of Trump's sons, Donald Jr. and Eric cageside for the fight, the crowd performed the "You suck!" chants during Covington's entrance.
Covington continued his trash-talking in the lead up to the Kamaru Usman fight at UFC 245. During a press conference, he said that Usman gave Glenn Robinson, Usman's long-time coach who died in 2018, "a heart attack from all those years you were ducking me," and that Robinson would be "watching from hell on Dec. 14." After losing to Usman at UFC 245, Covington criticized the referee of the bout, Marc Goddard. He called Goddard and his stoppage "fake", and said Goddard had unfairly given Usman breaks during the fight due to incorrect refereeing calls. Covington said that Goddard is anti-Brexit and anti-Trump, and speculated that Goddard's political views influenced his refereeing decisions.

Championships and accomplishments

Grappling

NCAA record

! colspan="8"| NCAA Championships Matches
! Res.
! Record
! Opponent
! Score
! Date
! Event
! style=background:white colspan=6 |2011 NCAA Championships 5th at 174 lbs
! style=background:white colspan=6 |2010 NCAA Championships at 174 lbs