In the week leading to UFC Tampa, we saw a slightly different Colby Covington. He didn’t say any headline-worthy words about his UFC Tampa opponent Joaquin Buckley and seemed razor-focused to win. In the fight, however, ‘Chaos’ seemed like a fish out of water. The California native seemed to gas out pretty early in the fight. This gave ‘New Mansa’ the opening to bust his face up and force the cage-side doctors to stop the fight. Needless to say, ‘Chaos’ received quite some backlash for his performance at UFC Tampa. Jon Jones also swooped at the chance to take a shot at the former interim welterweight champion on social media. Of course, Jones blamed Covington’s lack of proper training for his ugly defeat.

Taking to X, the heavyweight champion denigrated Covington for hyping up President-elect, Donald Trump rather than being fixated on someone as dangerous as ‘New Mansa’. Well, skipping training before a fight was the worst thing a fighter could do, and it was pretty evident from Covington’s performance. 

‘Bones’ tweeted, “Big shoutout to Colby Covington for skipping training to get President Trump ‘ready’—we all appreciate the sacrifice.” He placed a clown emoji to further insult the Californian mixed martial artist. Furthermore, the UFC heavyweight champion went on to boast that he had an actual moment with the POTUS, after his emphatic win over Stipe Miocic at UFC 309. He continued, “At least he got to see me win,” and ended the tweet with a salute emoji. 

Of course, Jon Jones wasn’t the only one who dissed Colby Covington for falling behind in his training. Let’s have a look at what the former mixed martial artist, Josh ‘The Punk’ Thomson had to say about Covington’s performance against ‘New Mansa’ at UFC Tampa.

UFC veteran joins Jon Jones to point out Colby Covington’s grievous mistake at UFC Tampa

Speaking on the ‘Weighing In’ Podcast, Thomson broke down the fight between Colby Covington and Joaquin Buckley. There was a time when the former interim welterweight champion trained with the best fighters in the UFC at American Top Team. But what ‘Chaos’ didn’t anticipate was the price he’d have to pay for the breakup. ‘The Punk’ said, “I don’t know if it’s the age as much, because I know he’s older, but let’s be honest. Within 2 fights, he doesn’t look [like] the same person. Since, he’s left the gym, since he left American Top Team, he doesn’t look like the same person.” 

Losing his breath within the first round was what put Covington at a disadvantage. As a result, he failed to push the pace in the later rounds and ultimately got TKO’ed. He continued, “And that can be common if he didn’t warm up well enough in the back. I get the feeling that he’s someone [that] does kinda grind it out in the back first to break the sweat… But not having the talent that he needs to kind of help him push his pace in training, is what I feel like I’m seeing right now. I’m seeing a fighter is having a hard time setting a pace that he’s not able to do inside the cage against world-class fighters, because he doesn’t have world-class fighters to train with anymore.” 

Even Covington didn’t fail to realize that he didn’t give his best performance at UFC Tampa, although he claimed that he could have won if he had a bit more time. That’s a bit hard to believe considering ‘New Mansa’ was finding his groove while Covington seemed to fade, especially in the later rounds. The California native stands at crossroads in his journey as a fighter. Having been kicked out of one of the best MMA gyms out there, being embroiled in so many out-of-fighting antics and rivalries, and now being on a two-fight skid at age 36, can’t bode well for the Florida-based fighter.

Regardless, what do you think of Colby Covington’s disposition? Do you think he’ll be able to bounce back with a win, or is this the beginning of the end of the man called ‘Chaos’? Let us know in the comments down below.