Colby Covington, Jon Jones and the Ugly History Between the Ex-College Roommates

Colby Covington will finally return to the Octagon after yet another year-long break following the loss against former champion Leon Edwards. Now, ‘Chaos’ is starting from the back of the line for another shot at UFC gold. As we inch closer to his UFC Tampa clash against surging contender, Joaquin Buckley, we’ll discover some aspects of Covington’s past in this article.

Colby Covington is currently one of the most popular fighters in the UFC but has failed to find his footing recently. After three failed attempts to secure undisputed gold and a lackluster performance in his last against ‘Rocky’, coupled with inactivity, the 36-year-old has also slipped out of the top 5. However, ‘Chaos’ has a respectable resume, to say the least, as he’s held the interim welterweight title once and boasts an MMA record of 17 wins and 4 losses, with wins over Rafael dos Anjos, Tyron Woodley, and Demian Maia. However, Covington’s journey in sports started back when he was in high school, continuing a dominant run in college. Let’s take a look at his early years as a combat sports athlete.

Which college did Colby Covington go to?

‘Chaos’ has been a combat sports athlete since his teenage years. During his senior year at Thurston High School, Covington won the 171-pound state wrestling championship. Thereafter, he attended the Central Iowa Community College. There, he won the Junior College National Championship and the Midwestern Conference Championship and set a record of 34 wins and 0 losses as a wrestler.

From Central Iowa Community College, Covington then joined the University of Iowa’s wrestling program, winning the 165-pound championship at the Flash Flanagan and Grand View Opens. Finally, he transferred one last time to Oregon State University, where he qualified for the NCAA tournament in his junior and senior years.

Covington also earned the ‘All-American’ honor and was a two-time Pac-10 Conference champion during his time at OSU. Interestingly, when he was at Central Iowa Community College, heavyweight champion Jon Jones was his roommate.

Did Colby Covington and Jon Jones live together?

Jon Jones, arguably the greatest MMA fighter of all time, and Colby Covington were both wrestlers when they were in Central Iowa Community College. They lived there for two years, sharing a dorm. After leaving the institution, both fighters made a name for themselves in the same organization, the UFC, for many years. Covington even mentioned once that he and Jones were like the best of friends.

However, the relationship between Jones and Covington has since deteriorated. ‘Bones’ once dismissed the fact that he shared a room with the welterweight star for two years, claiming that it was only for one semester. They have both taken verbal jabs at each other on multiple occasions, and one of those jabs was thrown very recently.

Jon Jones and Colby Covington exchange shots

From claiming that Jon Jones used PEDs during his college days to taking shots at his many outside-the-Octagon controversies, Colby Covington has made it evident that his relationship with ‘Bones’ may never heal, amid their many back-and-forth arguments in the past. While reminiscing about their college days, Covington once said, “Me and Jon lived together for two years at Iowa Central Community College. We were actually great friends at first. But then he started doing ster**ds… he’d just freaking, always have roid rage. He’d come home and yell at me, like, ‘What the f*** are you doing, Colby? Do the dishes!’. I’d see this rage in his eyes and think, ‘Dude, what’s your deal?’.”

The former welterweight interim champ even discarded the notion that Jones would ever become heavyweight champion, which turned out to be a wrong prediction. However, Jon Jones had absorbed enough words from Colby Covington to call out his character. “Colby’s a habitual liar. He told fans we lived together for two years. We lived together for one semester. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and a lot of people don’t consider me a good person, but coming from me, Colby’s a really bad person. He is.”, said Jon Jones post-UFC 245, which was the same night Covington lost his title fight to Kamaru Usman.

While fans would like to see them fight inside the Octagon, it is impossible since both of them belong to vastly different weight classes. Meanwhile, Colby Covington has been asked about his inactivity many times ahead of his fight against Joaquin Buckley. It remains to be seen if staying out of action proves costly to the former interim champion. Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.