UFC 296 blew the roof off T-Mobile Arena last Saturday night (Dec. 16, 2023) in Las Vegas, Nevada, leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among them was Stephen Thompson, was was submitted for the first time in his career at the hands of Shavkat Rakhmonov (highlights).
And Bryce Mitchell, who was viciously knocked out by Josh Emmett in the opening fight of the pay-per-view (PPV) main card (highlights). But which fighter is suffering from one of the worst post-fight hangovers, now a few days removed from the show?
Colby Covington.
Coming into the fight, Covington was his usual brash self, ramping up the theatrics with a costume during the pre-fight press conference before bringing Leon Edwards’ dead father into the mix. With that kind of confidence to spew that type of evil trash talk, you would think he would come in and put on one of the best performance of his life.
It was the complete opposite.
Indeed, “Chaos” rarely popped off any offense and the usual push-the-pace style that made him dangerous was nowhere to be seen. In fact, even his takedown attempts were slow and telegraphed a mile away. When he wasn’t eating “Rocky’s” brutal kicks that turned his leg into minced meat, he was backing up and throwing punches from a mile away. It truly was the worst performance of his career (highlights).
Afterward Covington — who actually thought he won the fight — blamed his sub-par performance on his near-two year layoff. And while that may have affected him some, we still expected a better outing from the former interim Welterweight title holder. Nevertheless, “Chaos” is just 2-3 over his last five fights, which will take him out of the championship picture for the foreseeable future.
And in typical Covington fashion, he was quick to somehow bring politics into the loss.
“I thought the third, fourth and fifth rounds were mine,” Covington said. “The fifth was mine, easily. Fourth, I thought was mine too, and I thought I did enough in the third. He didn’t put any damage on me. He got a couple of low kicks, but then I started checking them at the end. So I thought I had the win and did enough.”
“The judges never favor me,” he added. “They hate me because I support Trump, and everybody hates Trump in this building, so … it is what it is. Life goes on.”
As far as what could realistically be next for Covington, the outspoken wrestler called for a fight against Stephen Thompson afterward which caught most people off guard. According to “Chaos,” he has a beef with the nicest guy on the roster based on him picking against Covington in past fights.
I was initially thinking a showdown against Gilbert Burns, but since “Durinho” has been booked to take on Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 299, this may be the best option if both men want it.
Thoughts?
For complete UFC 296 results and live play-by-play updates click here.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
