Covington: I Didn’t Need To Wrestle
Colby Covington was not surprised that UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman didn’t try to wrestle him in their title fight.
Usman and Covington collided for the welterweight title in the UFC 245 headliner back in December. In what was a back-and-forth contest, it was Usman who came out on top with a somewhat controversial fifth-round TKO.
The entire fight was contested standing up which surprised a few given how both fighters pride themselves on their wrestling ability. Covington, however, believes Usman didn’t want to wrestle because he would getting tired.
As for why “Chaos” didn’t utilize any wrestling? He felt he didn’t need to.
“No, I was not surprised one bit that he didn’t want to wrestle because he knows that if he wrestles a D1 all-star like me, he’s going to get exposed and he’s going to get tired, and he’s going to gas,” Covington told MMA Junkie. “The reason I didn’t implement any wrestling is I was beating him up so easily standing.
“I wobbled him in the first, the second, and the fourth. I hurt him with the head kick, got a nasty body kick on him where he was about to quit. I caught him with some good straight lefts, good hooks, good uppercuts, and had him on wobbly legs multiple times, so I was having so much success striking that I didn’t need to wrestle. I was winning the whole entire fight, so I didn’t feel like I had to switch to the wrestling.”
Funnily enough, Covington previously stated that his supposed case of food poisoning during fight week was why he decided not to wrestle.
Regardless, the former interim champion was not pleased with how the first fight panned out, especially with the breaks that Usman was afforded. He has since campaigned for a rematch and is confident he will come on top should it come to fruition.
“The rematch, there’s going to be a different game plan, a different strategy and I’m 110 percent confident that he won’t be able to stand with me,” he added.
What do you think of Covington’s comments?
