Colby Covington has been getting a lot of hate following UFC 296 for his poor performance against Leon Edwards. The general consensus is that “Chaos” talked a metric ton of s— and then largely froze up in the cage. Gone was the typical high-pressure cardio grind fighter we were used to seeing. The Covington in the cage against Edwards that night simply couldn’t get anything going.
According to fellow UFC fighter Michael Chandler, a performance that bad should get you busted back down to the prelims. But retired veteran Kenny Florian believes Covington is getting unfairly dunked on by ignorant fans, and Edwards is being short-changed because of it.
“So many people don’t really know what they’re watching,” Florian said on the latest episode of his podcast with Jon Anik. “No offense. It’s just that I’ve spent the majority of my life studying fighting and things like that. When I hear someone go ‘Colby didn’t show up,’ I’m sorry, but I immediately go ‘You clearly know nothing about fighting.’ You don’t know about the sport.”
“I’d say 90% of that or more had to do with Leon Edwards’ ability to manage distance and keep Colby on the outside because of his phenomenal footwork and his ability to use those lead hands, those lead weapons and long range weapons, and use those lead hands as tentacles to try to keep Colby on the outside.”
“He was switching stances,” Florian continued. “Colby is not known for his footwork. When you look at guys that he’s faced, whether it’s Usman, Masvidal, Dos Anjos, Woodley, Lawler, these are all great fighters. But when you look at them, you don’t go, ‘Wow, their footwork is outstanding!’ No you don’t, which is why Colby was able to get to them. I can only wrestle you if I’m able to get at a certain range. If I don’t get at that range, there is no wrestling.”
“People are like ‘Why didn’t Colby just go for it?’ Go where?” he asked. “Who does he touch if he’s trying to chase a ghost? And that’s what Leon was out there, he was a ghost. He was moving extremely well and never let Colby get started until round 5.”
That’s one of Leon’s problems: he’s so slick that many fans can’t recognize what he’s doing. He’s so good with his distance and footwork that people don’t understand why his opponents get stuck on the outside eating potshots for 15 or 25 minutes. To some, it’s a masterful performance. For others, it’s boring.
Either way, that’s the known obstacle to overcome when fighting him. Colby’s inability to deal with a switched stance or offer any kind of counter to Leon’s game is still a massive failure in what may be Covington’s final title shot. Good for “Rocky” forcing that fight on him. But it was still bad for Colby crumbling completely in the face of adversity.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
