MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Colby Covington Resume Review | UFC 272: Covington-Masvidal

Episode Date: March 1, 2022

The Resume Review is BACK! Luke and Brian will be breaking down Colby Covington's resume ahead of his UFC 272 fight with Jorge Masvidal. The guys relive Colby's journey to this grudge match. (00:00:00) - Intro (00:05:00) - Wang Anying vs. Colby Covington (00:08:00) - Wagner Silva vs. Colby Covington (00:08:20) - Mike Pyle vs. Colby Covington (00:11:15) - Warlley Alves vs. Colby Covington (00:17:05) - Colby Covington vs. Jonathan Meunier (00:17:25) - Colby Covington vs. Max Griffin (00:22:20) - Bryan Barberena vs. Colby Covington (00:24:40) - Dong Hyun Kim vs. Colby Covington (00:28:55) - Demian Maia vs. Colby Covington (00:36:50) - Rafael Dos Anjos vs. Colby Covington (00:42:00) - Colby Covington vs. Robbie Lawler (00:46:20) - Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington (00:49:45) - Colby Covington vs. Tyron Woodley (00:51:20) - Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington 2 Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Best friends no more this Saturday night UFC 272. Not you and me, Luke Thomas, Brian Campbell, Morning Combat. But it's going to be a welterweight grudge pay-per-view duel this weekend when Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington meet finally inside that octagon. Five rounds. But for us here at the table, it's a little bit of chaos. Morning Combat resume review style hitting you up right now, just days out, looking back at the very interesting and quick path

it took Colby Covington to adopt a wild persona and become one of the best fighters in the world. Well, he's had some up and down since then. He might have beat Kamaru Usman in the rematch for the title. Well, I mean, depending on who was watching that. But that's what we do, Luke Thomas, Brian Campbell, we break things down in depth.

Buckle up. We're about to go the distance on how Colby Covington got here and what we have learned along the way. Luke Thomas might educate our opinion on how Saturday Night Fight plays out. We love doing these resume reviews in part because there is no curse, which is finally glad to be done with that nonsense. But who killed the curse? Was it Canelo? Was it Ngannou?

I think Canelo gave it the body shot, and then old Francie just put in the work. But in all seriousness, BC and I were talking about this before we shot it today. You really get a sense of who a fighter is when we do these exercises. When we go through in Colby Covington, you can see the very spots where he begins to turn and become who he is. And BC, just sort of a small note here. I've talked about this before. I think when Anderson Silva went to the UFC, he was either 16-4 or 17-4. Colby is sitting at 16-3.

So while that is, he does have a lot of veteran experience and, critically, a lot of in-ring time, a lot of decisions. He still is, I won't call him a neophyte, but relative to a lot of other greats we've done, we've not done Silva in this particular position, but you know what I mean. He doesn't have the longest resume in that sense, but he does have a hugely impactful one. And it went from who is this guy to, wow, maybe he'll be something one day, to he is defeating all of the famous welterweights one after another until he finally began that rivalry with Kamaru Usman, which could be closed, could be still open. We'll have to see what the future brings. But who is Colby Covington, the Chaos One? Of course, please like and subscribe

the video. We do some pretty awesome things here at Morning Combat. This is a special in-depth look though at Chaos. 34 years old right now, Luke, but the Clovis, California native before turning to mixed martial arts, a decorated amateur wrestler who, do people talk about it enough, had a lot of trouble outside the wrestling mat, which stunted some of his initial college opportunities. We know he did junior college and was a roommate of John Jones. We know he eventually made it to Oregon State and was a two-time All-American. But you go back and read the up and down. Colby was causing chaos outside the mats back then in DUIs, assaults. He's always been a little bit of a handful.

He's always been a little bit of a handful. And, in fact, Daniel Cormier revealed that they tried to recruit him out of high school. But I think due to some of the issues he had, he had to end up going the route through Iowa, then back over to Oregon State. But they already were looking at him. So it was a guy with a ton of promise, even in his most junior, so to speak, athletic setting and has had a couple issues. But it should be noted that he has turned whatever those indiscretions were into a more focused approach at self-promotion. And you can like him or you can hate him, and it seems like most people like him at

this point, but it worked. It worked. He turned that energy that was negative energy that was affecting his life, and it's still quite negative energy, but at least he's not having to sit in front of judges, he's actually getting bigger checks from it. And he's leaning heavily into it and as we look at how he got here as a 5-0 professional at the age already at this point of 26 when he makes his UFC debut in 2014. 2014, excuse me, yes. Luke, he's not a finished product at the point of his UFC debut. But would you say just on a more macro level, his transition from the amateur style of wrestling

into using it as a weapon in the MMA space, that was fairly instantaneous? Yeah, yeah, I would say that. I think when you look at the tape on him, especially in those early days, what did he have going for him? He had, I don't think he had quite weaponized his pace that way, but he certainly was able to give a full account of himself through the entire duration of the bout. Takedowns, he's got good wrestling against the fence. He's got good wrestling in open space. And dude, he is a phenomenal scrambler. That scramble folk wrestling style has served him so well. There are times we'll talk about it. Dong Hyun Kim gets him down. Other guys get him down, but they can't do anything with it because he can move, move, move.

So he had a lot of the things you would need. But what the tape will show is that he developed them accordingly in such ways that now they are just not powerful tools, but they are overwhelming dynamic forces that even other elite welterweights simply cannot handle. So he's got a name coming into his UFC debut in 2014 as a wrestler, as someone promising 5-0, trains with American Top Team, and his UFC debut is August of 2014 in Macau. It's the Michael Bisping-Kung Lee fight night card buried on those prelims, Luke. I want to get this correct who he fought.

Wang Anying? Anying is how I think it is. Again, I don't know. They call him Smiley. Wang Anying got on the UFC map. He's from Inner Mongolia through being in the Tough China series as well. A Sambo specialist. But what's interesting on the walk to the cage, Kenny Florian on the commentary,

I really like Colby's attitude, humble and hardworking. While that's not incorrect, and a lot of people will tell you before that persona and character came, the real Colby, a much different man, it's just like night and day to look back on this baby face walking to the cage and Ken Flo hyping that part of him up. Very interesting. The only thing I want to add to that is you're right. Ken Flo wasn't wrong for that. At the time, that was true. At the time when he first got to the UFC, you can see he's all about hard work, keeping your head down, just learning. And it's only as he gets comfortable with the process

that he begins to manipulate it for his own effect. If you haven't seen Colby Covington's UFC debut, Luke, it almost goes down in Mickey Gall CM Punk fashion in some ways. There is a long feel-out process, which is much different than the Colby we would end up seeing against Maya, against RDA, where it's sort of, I'm just going to run across, meet you in the middle of the cage, and try to establish what I do. Lots of fainting, but once he takes Anyang down, not only is the fight essentially over, but how do you like some of the early things, trapping the right arm of Anyang behind his back, and then it's just left pound and pound, ground

and pound powerhousing all day. Yeah, you would see more of this in a much more developed way in the Max Griffin fight, but this is what you were asking, like what did he come into the UFC with? You know, cross wrist and same side wrist control, riding the hips, getting the takedown. Ground and pound is obviously a little bit new, and the positioning that comes with that's a little bit new, but this opponent didn't offer any resistance. I will say this was a smart call probably for Colby to take this fight. Now maybe he didn't have much of a choice. But what I mean is you get to make your UFC debut. Okay here's the catch. You got to travel

to Macau, China to do it. Which is not that great. But we're going to give you an opponent that's very beatable with your already existing skill sets. He actually had another one he had to travel for for Uberlangia next in Brazil. And so it was actually the perfect fights for him to get the training wheels going and then taken off prior to the Mike Pyle fight. And you want to talk early now how important was the character turn that he would eventually get to. He's buried on the prelims for a while. And so here.

So anyway, Ahn Young does get up, but Colby with a body kick. Here's what he's doing. His striking this early is not a strength, but he knows how to disguise the threat of a big strike and go right into the shoot. In this case, it was a hard body kick directly into the shoot, and once he got Anyang down, short elbows cuts him, gets the stoppage, and you see a very baby face celebration. But at the very least from Colby, I don't think he fully believes in his striking, but he knows how to use it to deflect. This guy was a two-time All-American, which means you place inside the top eight at the

NCAA championships. That's what that means, right? He did it two times. It's very difficult to do. Dude, this guy knows he's stronger than most people. He knows he's faster than most people. He knows he's a better wrestler, even at this stage, than most people. He was bringing those talents to bear without a ton of concern, just playing it safe enough, I would say.

We turn the calendar to 2016, and his second fight for Colby in the UFC, as you mentioned, Luke, stays busy in Brazil, third round Rene Kachok submission of Wagner Silva, but it's the third fight in his progression where he's stepping up to a new level in Mike Pyle. It's May of 2015, it's UFC 187, he's buried on the friggin' prelims of the Connor Aldo. I'm sorry, that's 194 of the vacant light heavyweight title bout

between Daniel Cormier and Rumble Johnson. But Pyle Luke, despite being age 39, as the great mullet, stopped in two of his last three fights coming in, by the way, against Tim Means and Matt Brown. Just the size, the striking ability. This is the first fight where you're going to say, okay, Colby threw two fights. I know what his strengths are. Can we see some other adaptions? This was a great and a real first challenge for Colby. Mike Piles indicated

black belt, good, solid takedown defense along the fence line. In fact, I think, I can't remember if it was Herb Dean or not for the referee for this one. Separating them multiple times against the fence. Standing Colby up for inactivity. So you can see in these early stages, he's able to make contact. He's able to neutralize Mike Pyle. Switching that first and parts of the second round. But he didn't exactly have a lot of guard passing. He didn't exactly have a way to keep the offense moving.

Which was one of the things that hurt him. Now he had enough top control in this fight. And again, enough scrambling where Pyle scores a reversal, nearly scores a choke from the back. That scrambling ability is just so innate in Colby. He's hard to hold down. He's hard to hold on to. He's hard to get anything isolated. And so, while I thought that in that third round,

Pyle was able to do some good work, it was way too little too late. And Colby just showing, to your point, even in his third UFC fight, those skills from wrestling with some slight tweaks along the way. Dude, that's powerful enough to beat a guy as good as Mike Pyle. But this is worth rewatching if you want the full story of who Colby is. Because, as you mentioned, he's facing resistance for the first time. Pyle landing counter shots. We haven't seen someone on the feet really start to piece up Colby even a little bit. Pyle landing counter shots. We haven't seen someone on the feet really start to piece up Colby even a little bit. Pyle, stubborn takedown defense. Again, first one to really kind of stop that.

And also, he had 15 submission wins, Pyle, of his 26 wins overall. So, Luke, not only did we see Colby, who did deserve a solid three-round unanimous decision here, but you had to see him bypass not just resistance, but a little vulnerability. Don't't forget late in round three uh Colby gets caught in a Kimura Mike Pyle reverses it then Mike Pyle in full bound and a legit choke in which you've got to see the real fight in Colby Covington to to griddly sort of work out of that before the bell and get free. But I think you saw that. Colby goes immediately for a C-grip behind the sort of double unders behind Mike Pyle, pulls himself to him until he could finally get away or at least roll through and create a scramble. Nearly gets choked out, to your point, because, hello, Mike Pyle's a pro fighter too. And his face turns red.

I mean, Colby is gritting. You can see him like hardcore. But, dude, he does get out of it and ends that particular sequence back on top. Like, it's pretty incredible. We're learning how mental tough Colby Covington is on this journey. But now he would stumble into a loss that I'm not sure, following this progression, you saw coming. It goes down as Colby is 8-0, stepping in there against Worley Alvis.

It is the Conor Aldo UFC 194 early prelims, but it's on the pay-per-view level December 2015 in Las Vegas. Luke Worley-Alvis coming in 9-0 overall. He would go on to be 5-4 after that. He's still somehow with the UFC. But Colby, a minus 135 betting favorite. So you're starting to see people recognizing what he can do. The Pyle one was a big step forward.

But, Luke, this one, boy., boy did it not go to plan. I'm sorry, less than 90 seconds. 86 seconds was all Alves would need. What went wrong here? I think that was one. So you talked about the good part of his transitioning from college over to MMA and the skills he could bring. And that took him him pretty far but here he got a little lazy with his positioning on his head positioning and Borley Alves is able to I think stop the takedown once or twice there was a couple of efforts at it but then eventually Colby just leaves his head on a platter form he just wraps it and then sits almost immediately to it that's it by Alves was kind of bad it was perfect at all for arming guillotines which you're

looking at a lot of things you're looking for one things you're looking for is the arm that's choking. Is the elbow buried beneath the shoulder line? Before he even sat, it was buried for the shoulder line. And then you see Colby sit up. And what do you notice that Worley doesn't do? He does not really readjust. He stays right there and holds on to it.

So by the time he goes back down, once he cranks into it, Colby had nowhere to go. It was a bad positioning thing. And I think that one of the things you see him do now, especially in that Lawler fight, he gets behind opponents a lot now. He likes to get between himself and the fence and then use that tight waist or like an over-under grip because I think if you just play too long in front of a guy like that, Colby's defense even since then has obviously gotten a lot better. His head positioning has gotten better.

But this is him getting a little bit in front of his skis, trying things he wasn't ready for against an opponent who, we can't say he's a better welterweight than him. He was on this night, but not in general. But the point I'm trying to make here is, this shows you there were some things, this was a wake-up call for him about what he needed to do to put himself in a position to win.

It would turn out to be Worley Elvis' mountaintop moment going to 10-0, as I mentioned, going 5-4 after. But it wasn't just Colby getting caught in the first 90 seconds, Luke. No one came at him yet until Alves did it, who ran at him with flying knees, was working him a little bit in the clinch. And even though Colby ends up getting his first takedown attempt, Alves puts on the choke and never lets it go, leading to them sort of breaking apart and, I'm sorry,

leading to the scramble that led to the submission so he got you know he walked into somebody else's trap and strength and got found out do you give him any credit for his attempt Colby in the choke before the tap out at a violent slam he does pick Elvis up and tries to slam him violently but when it when that doesn't work to break the the thing the tap comes and Colby holding his chest afterwards in pain. Could be, I'm not sure. You can get compressed that way, right? So the reason why, listen, if you try something in the octagon and it works, you kind of have to respect it.

But best practices are typically going to be the things that work. If slamming your way, you go into a guillotine, not out, right? That's the way it has to go. The way you get it is they're going to create a misalignment on your spine, so they're going to pull everything down. You want your spine as straight as possible, so you'd have to get up in the air and kind of methodically work his way out. He didn't have that, so he went to his first order attack, which is just try to slam the

guy. Shows great athleticism, doesn't show great submission awareness, and this is my point. That probably motivated a guy as intense as Colby Covington to go back to the gym and be like, listen, if I'm going to be pressing these dudes into the fence, I need to know how to do this in a very safe MMA-centric kind of way, and I don't think he had all that locked in. We had to see now how Colby would react to his first pro loss, first loss in the UFC, and we turned the calendar to 2016. he would have that bounce back win, a third round submission win.

Let me say one note here on this fight, real quick, before we move on. Over what, Jonathan Manure? No, just the Varley Alves fight. It's around this time, maybe a little bit afterwards, Shoustashan Sheehan over at Severe MMA in Ireland, he had noted that there was either some message board or some kind of form or some kind of tweet, whatever, where Colby had said he was going to beat up the Irish more than the Brits did or something like that, something where you could see him poking the bear online and see what kind of reaction it got.

He didn't make it a public part of his pre-Alvis fight promotion, who's obviously Brazilian, but the point I'm trying to make is you can see him poking around at this point. And I'd love to know, because we're not full pro, we're not pro wrestling heel version of Colby yet. We're certainly not Trump version of Colby yet. But Luke, you hear a lot of people say Dan Lambert, who's doing professional wrestling right now in AEW and has had cups of coffee and other major wrestling promotions, that he was the influence, super wrestling fan behind the scenes for starting to build the Colby character that we saw i'm wondering right now if you're starting to get some of that because that's not colby's natural gear no i mean isn't he a pro wrestling fan too

he is and we're already establishing that even in his collegiate days he's had some dustups outside the cage you know he's a bit of a of a troublemaker and it's fueling who he is as a fighter but we're still seeing full-on babyface colby at this point including this next fight outside the cage. You know, he's a bit of a troublemaker and it's fueling who he is as a fighter. But we're still seeing full-on babyface Colby at this point. Including this next fight I'm going to transition to where he's walking to the cage slapping hands like he's, you know. I'm wondering how much the Dan Lambert influence is starting to begin. I also want to say, like, it does seem to me, and you see him after the Alvis fight holding his chest,

but also despondent. It seems to me he can't, and this makes sense, this is quite rational, he doesn't really settle into what his personality is until he settles into what his game is. And when his game begins to get solidified and he's confident about his choices and his chances that's when the personality starts to build. So he's building the foundation inside the Octagon BC so he can begin to build a foundation, so to speak, outside of it. Colby would bounce back from the loss instantly as we turn the calendar to 2016, submit Jonathan Manure over three rounds.

I think it's Mounier. Mounier. Manure would be a little bit, it would be a little bit American disrespectful for me to say. Mounier, my French brethren, it was in Ottawa. But Luke, the next fight, he's facing a UFC debuting Max Payne Griffin, who came in with 12 and two record outside of it, and this is still an early prelim bout, but I think this was gonna give us a test of which direction Colby's going. He's already bounced back.

Lot of swagger on the way, but still baby face slagger to the octagon, slapping hands. He does start to stick the tongue out first time we see that. Yes, I noticed the exact same thing. So the little edge right there. First round, Colby eats a couple right hands, Luke. Good action on the feet.

He's exchanging, but he's still using the offense to set up the takedown in which he uses to control the offense. Yes, but I think, so we look at, let's talk about this. We look at, in the careers of fighters when we do this, what was some of the turning point fights? For me, and you might disagree, this is a turning point fight for two reasons. One, you're right, I noticed that he was doing like the little, there was a little more showmanship this time around, number one. Number two, this fight, he would get away from this at times.

This fight had torrential ground and pound. I mean, he beat Max Griffin up in this fight. And not even just in the third round. Elbows, dude. Elbows. Those elbows. But just the volume of punches. Max Griffin offered initial resistance, right? Trying to stop takedowns and standing up.

Yeah, stood his ground. But eventually, dude, Colby just does what he does to everybody. And once he breaks will and guys are no longer that first-order resistance, his second and third order is much better than everyone else's second and third order. It's just so much more oomph to it. And, dude, he beat up Max Griffin. And when he gets off of him in the third round, he shows the tongue, and Max Griffin's bleeding everywhere.

He's raising his arms and looking around like Russell Crowe in Gladiator. So this is the fight that is the turning point on the persona and character. It might be on the fighting style too, Luke, because we haven't seen him fully weaponized cardio yet, but yet in round two here, when he's starting to begin the bludgeoning of Max Griffin on the ground, I mean, Griffin looks like he's in full chaos mode. You know, he looks like he doesn't know how to get out of that. And then Colby in full mount to end round two, and he's bloody as hell. It seemed inevitable that we were going to get a stoppage eventually, and Kolbe would get that in round three, and it was a systematic takedown,

hang on the leg, set up for the choke. Also, takedowns against the fence, takedowns in open space here, too. Single leg, right? So we're not too far removed from the Vorley Alves loss. You don't want to avoid the fence, but maybe mixing things up and having single leg run the pipe takedowns and then, you know, obviously positionally advancing on him. Those were, I'm not going to say new wrinkles, but polished pieces of his game that he re-implemented

against a better opponent. Think of the time of what this is as we go to the finish and the finish came, Max never gives him the next, so the finish just comes with some aggressive ground and pound. So you're seeing the evolution here. This is UFC 202 in Las Vegas. This is Conor versus Nate 2, 2016 August. And Luke, even though this is still buried in the prelims, this was the full-on change in moment.

Not to Trump version of Colby, but to coming in, sticking out my tongue more. Why don't I go full on heel? Because as he gets the finish finish Colby grabs the microphone first time being interviewed Luke in a post fight situation and the crowds booing him as he begins to talk trash the it's his first time staying with Joe Rogan as well and the quote is no one in this division can stay with my pace I'm going to get that belt sooner or later mark my words and when they asked when Joe asked him about sort of the animosity that he's showing, he's saying, look, Max was just talking a lot of crap,

so I had to let him know who was boss. So he's got the crowd booing him. He's putting on that heel persona. He's getting the Joe Rogan FaceTime. You're right. This is that turning point moment where he's figured out, because he's weaponizing his cardio. This was probably the best his ground and pound has really looked to use it

to get a guy out of there. He's coming on, Luke. This was probably the best his ground and pound has really looked to use it to get a guy out of there. He's coming on, Luke. This is the Harold Howard. This is the beginning. If you're coming on, come on. This is when he realizes what he can do in this division, how he can do it, and what are the other levers he needs to pull to maximize his career.

I don't know if this is the fight or if the next one against Brian Barbarina is, but when Colby retells the story, when you can get him out of persona and he tells it the right way, all of his transformation, Luke, doesn't he talk about, I've had one fight left on my UFC deal and I was known as a boring wrestler who had already lost and they were probably going to fire me and let me go. And whether that's completely true or not, he's taking it. You have to give him credit.

He's taking what's given to him, the level of matchmaking, and he's trying anything he can to get noticed and get seen. That's right. He's not fighting guys who have like dynamic Twitter personalities per se, although Max Griffin's an interesting dude, but what I mean is, you know, this is not Nate Diaz, this is not Conor McGregor, he's not fighting dudes with big names, so he has to find and manufacture some kind of reason for people to tune in. And by the way, some of his efforts stumble at times, and we're not here to say that even though it worked, it's good, right? Like saying awful things about Brazilian people, calling them filthy animals.

These are not things I necessarily condone, but they were certainly incontestably much more effective at generating a visibility. The next fight might seem lost in his transition here, but it is important. It's December 2016 in Sacramento. It's Brian Barbarina. They're still buried on the prelims. I forgot about this fight. But this is a UFC on Fox card with Paige Van Zandt against Michelle Watterson that had some hype as at that point, the UFC on Fox quarterly card still had it. And why this is important is not only was this a fresh Brian

Barbarina, he was 12 and three overall, Luke. One fight before had beaten Warly Alves by unanimous decision. So here's action star, bigger than Colby in this division, a guy you're not going to handle easily. But Luke may be more important than all of this as he walks to the prep point. First fight with Jorge Masvidal, his ATT teammate, directly in his corner. First fight with Jorge Masvidal's striking coach, Paulino Hernandez. That's right. Actually, it's in the's striking coach, Paulino Hernandez. That's right. Actually, it's in the, well, in the Griffin fight also, they had said Paulino Hernandez is working his corner.

Okay, but now you've got Jorge and him, like, major presence. I did not see. Mike Brown is the director. Yes, I didn't see Jorge in the Griffin fight. It's actually the one after the Barbarina fight you're talking about, where you begin to see that, like. The influence. Paulino Hernandez is the one that is at the center of this controversy about whether or not he was paid by Colby.

But at this time, Jorge cornering him and Paulino. And if you want to know right away what that influence might do, Colby Covington opens the first round with a missed jump spinning kick and then comes right back into a high head kick that partially lands. So he's trying to show that, yeah, I'm still going for the takedown. Yes, I'm still using my offense to get me there, but I now have to make the offense a threat as well because he would take Barbarina down four times in succession.

Why Barbarina's big, and this was a good test for Colby because while Barbarina's takedown defense isn't the best, he's tough and he's going to get right back up. Colby just freaking relentlessly. 12 of 17 takedowns. Here's how they break down. He got six of seven in the first, three of five in the second, three of five in the third. Dude, these guys can't handle his wrestling. Once he tired Barbarina, he began to strike on even turns with Barbarina. And that's why I think this is another important

progression where Mike Goldberg even says at the conclusion of this three-round unanimous decision, this is the best performance of Colby's career up to that point. Yeah, yes. In terms of comprehensive offensive effort, yes. Yes, in fact, it was. Look, you're fighting Barbarino, you're fighting Max Griffin. It's still a certain level. Luke, I feel like we jumped up to a next level of competition to start 2017.

It goes down in June in Singapore as Colby continues to be a road warrior. And Luke, it's the last career fight of, at this point, 35-year-old Dong Yong Kim. Is that right? Who, the stun gun, who is, who, he was 7-1 in his last eight coming into this fight, with the stoppage loss to Tyron Woodley being the only one as he sort of, you know, is he going to be a title contender?

Can he get to that level? And we all know he has a pretty killer resume before that, wins and losses against very elite opponents. But Kim's also got a four-inch reach advantage, and this is a new style for him to fight against. A welterweight who's bigger than him, who's got the judo and standing clinch toughness and the ability to potentially do things to him.

I don't think any of us thought this was going to end up being the retirement fight of Kim, but this was another big adaption step because they mentioned early in round one that ATT brought in 205 pound judokas for Colby to work on ahead of this and that Jorge was the main sparring partner trying to mimic Kim so you're seeing that influence what did you see in this fight yeah exactly so this one was actually a bit of a reset moment I would argue forby. He's getting better and better and better, but Dong Hyun Kim is very good. And being a judoka, had the capacity for his own takedowns, nullifying things in the clinch,

right? So you have to be very careful. So this fight got a lot of boos in Singapore. I believe there's a couple of ref separations along the way, but the point I did learn, though, was that Colby, A, would get thrown a couple of times and still scramble back to a dominant position. He also blocked a lot of these judo attempts. Blocked a ton of them, stuffed them. So his standing clinch physicality is a big part of this. That's right.

So in the Lawler fight, which we'll get to, you'll see him work this clinch position. Obviously Lawler is not Dong Kyung Kim in the clinch or up against the fence in the clinch or whatever. But the point I'm trying to make is he used all the things. He had to be very defensive here. In fact, he only threw and landed 47 significant strikes. Not a ton for him. I think he had over 70, for example, against Brian Barberina.

So he had to dial back the offense. But he did realize, okay, now, by the way, Donghyun Kim, like Vorley Alves, has submissions there. But he kept himself in safe spaces while dominating from behind at times, getting enough of the takedowns that he needed to. He got three out of six in the first round, two out of five in the second round, and three out of four in the third round. Again, we go back to it. We sound like broken records.

An overwhelming presence, and this time, BC, no mistakes. Maybe he got a couple times where he got tossed, but he didn't make mistakes. Again, he's not formally utilizing his cardio as a weapon. It's part of the overall thing that he's doing right here because he's trying to improve his striking, as I mentioned earlier. And in that second round, Luke, you would see Covington rock Kim with an overhand left, then hit a running switch knee and add a high kick. So there's a variety with striking.

Kim would block a takedown early in the second round and then never stuff another the rest of the way. But what is interesting, the end of the second round, as they were standing and grappling, you got a judo trip from Kim that goes down as the first takedown. On Colby. Scored against Colby. But he couldn't do anything with it. Couldn't do anything with it. Couldn't do anything with it.

That's the key. This fight closes, it's a three-round unanimous decision. A good counter striking from Colby to end it. But Colby getting booed and he screams, this is my house as he wipes dirt off of his shoulders and does the Hulk Hogan ear thing. As he's being booed. To the heel fans as he's being booed. Colby would then turn to Kim just to give him respect,

bow to him, hug him after the decision. But he's going after the crowd, there's no question about it. The quote Luke, I'm the uncrowned king of this division. Dana, I'm a size 32 waist. Get that belt for me. He would do the discount, double check. And he would also say, Luke, to be the best in the division, I got to beat him. So I want RDA. And the Kim one, look, if we learn something from here, he's title ready. Colby is title ready. He's ready to fight either for the title or the guys you have to beat to get there. That's right.

This took him up another level. Dongchun Kim was very well respected at this time. And you know his final quote in this? My best friend Jorge Masvidal, thank you very much. Yeah, who was in the corner. You can hear Jorge being like, switch to the double if he gives it to you. Switch to the double. Dude, he was on top of it, giving that guy great advice in the corner.

So, Luke, let's launch directly, if you're Colby Covington's career arc, into the title picture here. The Kim win was June of 2017, so let's go to October of that same year, and it's in Brazil, Luke, if you're looking for a turning point of the heel character of Colby Covington, and it would come against the great Damian Maia. Where is Maia at this point? Three months removed, Luke, from losing his title opportunity against Tyron Woodley and really just getting stuffed at every turn.

But I say that to show you that this is still its end of career Maia, but it's the last prime version of end of career Maia because his reinvention to cut down to welterweight, to add striking in there, but, you know, really against Woodley, you saw what he's about. He went for about 500 takedowns and got none of them. Just before the Woodley fight, so that was a bad loss for him. But remember, Woodley didn't, like, beat Maia up.

He just stuffed everything. That was a UFC 214, right? That was the Jones DC2 card, if memory serves. But before that, dude, he had beaten Jorge Masvidal Carlos Condit Matt Brown Gunnar Nelson Neil Magny Ryan LaFleur and Alexander Yakovlev consecutively that's a reinvention he went consecutively so it's submitted and submitted Condit Brown and Magny along the way this is a UFC fight night Brunson Machida was the main event but look you're going to Brazil and you're fighting Damian Maia for a chance probably to really get your shot at the title.

Luke, this is also the beginning of the full-on Colby versus Tyron Woodley, who's still the champion. No, he's no longer. No, sorry. Yeah, he'd beaten Darby Lawler in 2016. So Woodley's the champion. And with the fallout of ATT, all that business, DC makes a quote at the prep point that he said, I talked to Dean Thomas, and Dean Thomas told me, I wanted to help Colby win this fight so he can fight Tyron because I think it's an easy fight for Tyron.

So there's still some of that camp. Did I write that wrong? Do you think he said easy fight for Colby? Was Tyron in and out of ATT? Tyron had ATT St. Louis for a time. I'm not sure what it's called now. But Colby, this is when Colby was saying Tyron's mad. Dean and Tyron are boys.

Okay, Dean and Tyron are boys, but this is also that time where Colby's saying Tyron's mad that they put up a picture of... Colby in the gym? Yeah, and so we got a lot of that back and forth. But let's go to the fight. Colby, a minus 135 betting favorite coming in. Damian Maia's a lot bigger than him, Luke, okay? You know, but here's the thing, dude. And he is, and Damian Maia's, who's more offensive these days,

lands three consecutive hard overhand lefts. And then three more left hands that force Colby to smile. That shows you, you got me. And begin to circle away. Early on, you're like, how's Colby going to that shows you you got me and begin to circle away early on you're like how's Colby gonna attack this specific target because if you try to take Maya down while you're falling into a spiderweb well he's lighting him up on the feet early how about this Colby Covington for takedowns zero four zero

round one zero four zero round two zero four zero round three which of course we already knew but I bring up to say dude he couldn't rely on wrestling at all maybe some clinch neutralization at times but mostly he was trying to just keep distance from him so bleeding and the I'm bleeding because he's been hit with his overhand left so you can see the blood coming down but dude about midway through that round he takes that fight by the scruff of the neck and never looks back how he turned it leg kicks calf kicks well he gets away from him though I'm actually right so that No, but that's the turn in round one. Oh, in round one, yes.

When he's lit up, he's bleeding, he's smiling, the crowd's booing him, he begins to reestablish, stand in front of him, and kick the lead leg of Maia because he's not going to take him down. And as you said with those statistics, Luke, in the end, he's not going to attempt to try to take him down. He doesn't want any of that smoke. So for Colby to win this, and this is such a pivotal contest, guy coming off of a title shot, is Colby ready for this level? You're going to

have to outstrike him. Now, I know in theory, you're like, well, Damian Maia is not a striking force. But look, at times, I mean, Damian Maia versus Ben Askren is some of the worst striking we've ever seen in an elite level. But at times in this run, Damian Maia is not easy to strike with. And also... Well, no, is that accurate? Yeah, that's fair. That's accurate. I mean, it's not. It's... Well, for Anderson Silva, well, they fought, but so it was what it was. But I mean, like, an elite striker would probably have his way.

Colby's not an elite striker. But the thing for me that stood out, two things stood out for me. The leg kicks were big in round one. He got away from them after that, came back a little bit in round three. The thing that stood out for me was two things. One, dude, he was so much physically stronger than Demi and Maia. This fight, to me, highlights the difference between dudes who grew up wrestling who are great at wrestling and who are not.

And I think that's what's so interesting about Colby. I mean, he's a great fighter. He's a great fighter. He's a great fighter. He's a great fighter. He's a great fighter. He's a great fighter. He's a great fighter.

He's a great fighter. He's a great fighter. He's a great fighter. He's a great fighter. He's a great fighter. The thing that stood out for me was two things. One, dude, he was so much physically stronger than Demi and Maya. This fight to me highlights the difference between dudes who grew up wrestling, who are great athletes, and then dudes who try to learn wrestling later. Now, obviously, guys like St. Pierre have kind of muddled that, but Demi and Maya couldn't. Every time he tries to lock up, dude, the scrambles from Colby Covington to turn left, turn right, turn around, back him up. Maya was overwhelmed. He would trip him. He stood with him, and then he outstruck him. But that pace started to, you could see the pace.

Don't you feel like when they locked up, Colby was like muscling him around. I was kind of shocked. Even though Maia looks like the bigger fighter. That's right. Was landing the heavier strikes earlier. Once Colby settled in, I'm not going to shoot, but I'm going to put pressure on you constantly. It actually then became a gas tank game.

Luke, in hindsight, I remember watching this fight and going, Maya's gassed out? In the middle of the second round, he looked like he was gassed out. He looked like he was gassed out, but you're right. And it made a change as Colby can start to get more confidence offensively, where he's starting to land uppercuts. He's throwing boxing combinations. The crowd is booing the shit out of him.

But by round three, Luke, would you say this is like one-sided? Super one-sided. Dude, he's banging up Maya. And also, Maya, the difference, again, in the Woodley fight, Maya couldn't get his takedowns or submissions going. In this fight, he couldn't get them going and was also on the other end of just a constant sort of steady drumbeat of offense on the feet. One thing he did that was a great adjustment, I wanted to bring it up, he put his hands up high.

Mike Brown told him in between rounds, get your guard high and then throw from there, and you can see him do it. And then the lefts that are coming over start to miss. He starts to get away from them. And then once the left wasn't really an option for Demi and Maya to go back to as it was early in the first round, he doesn't have anything for him. He has nothing for him.

Well, here's what really angered the fans. At the end of round three, Maya, desperate takedown attempt kobe sprawls and then give colby credit luke he was almost doing lesnar style ground and pound underneath and he bloodies up maya and he's discount double checking after the bell he's you know he's looking and then he goes not just he'll turn he doubles down on it brazil you're a dump all you 50 and filthy animals suck he would call out woodley he would push off the brazilian translator and say they don't even down on it. Brazil, you're a dump. All you filthy animals suck. He would call out Woodley. He would push off the Brazilian translator and say they don't even deserve to hear this.

And it's sort of like, holy shit, Luke. He didn't just neutralize Damian Maia. He beat the shit out of him and left him bloody. And then he turned on Brazil and they're throwing shit out on left and right, Luke. Of course, it leads to the Verdun boomerang incident, but this is fairly aggressive. You don't see this type of reaction regularly. No, and then also, you've got to remember,

Colby always brings it up as like a talking point. It's like, oh, I left Demian Maia in a pool of his own blood. Yeah, he did. He did. When Maia stands up, his face is a crimson mask from all of the damage it had accumulated. And he was already hyped up from it. He'd already obviously planned to do what he did. But we talk about turning point fights. This might be the most turning point of them all, actually.

I know he wins the title against RDA, but BC, from the Max Griffin fight to this one, now the turn of the screw is beginning to happen. One month later, November 2017 in Australia, Colby would be down there, Verdun would be down there. The filthy animal Brazil comments would still be circling. Verdun would buy a souvenir boomerang, Luke. Introducing the new McSpicy

from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. At participating McDonald's in Canada. Are you crushing your bills?

Defeating your monthly payments? Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. The credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. And throw it at them, and then they kind of needed to be separated

by, like, UFC PR personnel on the scene. Would you say, before Colby then pivots again into full right-wing Trump, let me go in that direction, this is peak villain, spoils Star Wars and Spider-Man movies, getting Brazil after him. This is sort of peak, is he quasi-racist? Who is this character? And he was obviously leaning into sort of right-wing politics at this time in a very loose and general way. This was pre, like, really, like, always wearing the MAGA hat and stuff like that. And this is when people were booing him. In fact, we'll talk about in the RDA fight,

they're booing him there. They're booing him in the Lawler fight. But they don't boo him forever. We go to a monster fight. It's June of 2018. It's in Chicago. It's for the interim UFC welterweight title at UFC 225. Luke, that's Robert Whitaker versus Yoel Romero part two. Why are we doing an interim title here? Is it because Tyron Woodley couldn't come back in time? I believe that's correct. Yes. It's the first co-main event for Colby. It's really his first monster, monster placing at this level. He's a minus 135 favorite. What do you remember coming in against Rafael Dos Anjos, who, if you want to know, Rafael had moved down Luke to, I'm sorry, would move back up to welterweight. Loses his lightweight title by knockout.

Has that Tony Ferguson fight where cutting weight nearly kills him. Goes to welterweight Luke. Beats Tariq Safedine, Neil Magny, Robbie Lawler, and is now in an interim title fight. Do you remember thinking Colby minus 135 as the betting favorite? That's about right for this. I don't remember thinking it. I remember thinking it was a bad fight for RDA. So in your mind, that Maya

victory was enough to show you that this guy might win the title. This guy's going there. Oh yeah. To do what he did, again, remember Woodley did it for five rounds. Colby just for three. Okay, that's a difference. But Woodley didn't put hardly any gloves on him. That's why he got booed out of the

Honda Center at the time, fairly or unfairly he did. Dude, Colby beat him up. He put a beating on him without any takedowns. And it's like, okay, you couldn't get takedowns against that guy because of his submission threat. Now you have to go right back to all your takedowns and that guy couldn't do shit to you? It's like, man, this guy has

a lot of different gears. Is that the prettiest game? You're not going to make the most amazing highlight reels out of it, but it's damn effective. But here's what's important. So against Damian Maia, Colby might have gassed him out by round two of a three-round fight, but he's moving up to the five-round level for the first time. This would be the first of five consecutive fights for Colby that at least entered the fifth round. Luke, he's thinking, I already got amazing cardio. I just gassed out Maia, but I didn't try to take him down because I didn't want to F around with that guy's jiu-jitsu. I just gassed out Maya, but I didn't try to take him down

because I didn't want to F around with that guy's jiu-jitsu. RDA, well-rounded, but not as dangerous on the ground. Colby is going into full-on weaponizing cardio assassin here. He runs across the cage to start this fight and instantly shoots and takes RDA down. He really does. Colby Covington attempted 18 takedowns in this fight. Four in the first, three in the second, three in the third, two in the fourth, and then six in the fifth.

He had to because RDA was kind of, not putting it on him, but rallying him. RDA had moments of rallying where the clinch, the knees to the stomach were becoming a thing. But Colby, to give him credit, outside of falling into a trap and tapping against Alvis, Orly Alvis, although he did pick him up and try to slam before the tap, we're not seeing him getting wobbled. We're not seeing him very vulnerable. You made a mention that he doesn't make big mistakes that lead to losses, which is true.

He also endures pretty damn well, whether it's heavy strikes or he's not going to falter stamina wise. He doesn't falter when he gets cut. I mean, he's pretty damn tough. And I think the cardio is the is the linchpin to all of this. There's a famous slogan that people say in combat sports, fatigue makes cowards of men. When you get tired, your decision-making suffers. You can't make the same optimal amount of decisions that you need to.

But what if your cardio is great? Dude, you're at least in a position to make great choices all the time. You don't have to ration your offense or avoid things because they're difficult. You can just do what you want. Such a potent weapon. Jorge in his corner. Now, Jorge Masvidal, this is his 2018 where he is in exile, Luke. He was pretty thick.

He was like a heavyweight in there, rubbing Colby's arms. Quickly, round two. I mean, he just starts off again. Head kick flurries. It ends up being the same thing, really, for five rounds. RDA will have his flurries. RDA tries to wrestle him in the fourth and has some success, actually. Takes him down, I think, once or

twice. But the overall weaponization of cardio and the control and not putting himself in bad positions is a damn great win. He's the interim champion. And the quote in the post-fight interview is, this is the real championship belt. I'm going to do what a real American should do

and take this title to the White House and put it on Trump's desk. He would go on to call Tyrone Woodley a coward who was hiding. Come see me, bitch, was the quote. So if you're waiting for that right-wing hard turn, it's time. He wants to bring that belt to the White House.

Remember, he didn't call him Dos Anjos. He called him Dos Nachos. Remember, that was very clever. That's time. He wants to bring that belt to the White House. Remember, he didn't call him Dos Anjos. He called him Dos Nachos. Remember, that was very clever. That's who he is. That's June of 2018. In the meantime, Luke, Tywin Woodley would lose his title to one Kamaru Usman. Was this also

the beginning of behind the scenes, you know, like publicly Colby going full on, I'm ready to attack, you know, fake newsman Marty from Nebraska? Well, this is still, publicly, Colby going full on, I'm ready to attack fake newsman Marty from Nebraska. Well, this is still, okay, he's still in the Woodley sweepstakes. But then Woodley would lose this belt in 2018. Yes, yes, yes. Before Colby's next fight.

So Colby gets stripped, something to note, Colby gets stripped of that interim title before his next fight. You could argue he kind of got screwed, but he didn't want to stay on UFC's timeline. So he would not fight that fall. We come around to 2019. Your new champion is Usman, but Colby gets a big-time close-up. It is UFC on ESPN after that deal goes down. And this is Robbie Lawler, the former champion.

A five-round fight in Newark that will air in the afternoon because of scheduling on ESPN. And this would also see one Colby Covington invite the Trump brothers. Yes. And you're seeing Colby now full on red maga hat. He's got the red maga hat everywhere, Luke. He's not even paying the models to come to the interviews anymore. He's got the Don Jr. book. I mean, he's going full on WWF. And remember, backstage remember backstage afterwards after he wins he gets a phone call from the at the time the

president donald trump now to just put into perspective where was robbie lawler at this point because this is this was a turning point fight you could argue of where robbie lawler would now be now but yet lawler all lost three or four coming in but Luke would you argue that even though Lawler had lost to Askren he had moments dude he had freaking moments sure um I mean arguably the you know yeah yeah big time moment you know he had got knocked out by Tyron Woodley bounced back against Cowboy did the loss to RDA for Lawler make you feel like overall he was washed yeah not washed but in a different place I remember coming into this fight, I still didn't believe in Colby. And I think looking back, I'm kind of embarrassed. As you go through this progression now, you're like, oh shit,

the Maya and RDA fights pretty much showed us what we need to know. But I think sometimes when you're looking at it a little more from a distance, I didn't feel like his striking could stand up with a truly elite striker. I know he gave in trade with RDA very well, but I felt like he constantly was able to pull these guys into exhaustion for some reason. Robbie Lawless stinginess and takedown defense and just his ability to go savage. I felt like this was going to be a trap fight for Colby. Dude, I think I picked Robbie to win this. Yeah, you shouldn't have. No, because this fight was...

Not even close. I mean, he pissed on poor Robbie Lawler. Now, to be fair, this was... There was one 50-44 scorecard. By the way, 50-45, 50-45, he won all of them. I mean, Robbie had lost three or four, right? He just lost to Askren in a fight in which he had moments. But, man, I just did not expect the lifelessness from Robbie.

How much of that lifelessness was Colby's just constant freaking pressure in your face? This, to me, is the real stat. Two attempted takedowns in round four for Colby. Just one attempted in round five. Didn't get it. So we got 0-4 in round five, and he only got one of the two in round four. But listen to this. Seven takedowns attempted in the first. Four of them he got. Three attempted takedowns in the second, all of them he got. Five attempted takedowns in the third, two of them he

got. Here's the point I want to make. He comes right out of the gate with pressure, boom. Puts you on your back, was threatening with those chokes. They were not very close, but they occupy your hands. He's getting his legs pulled out. He's getting his base pulled out. Constantly things were happening to him. Again, 179 significant strikes landed BC out of 515 attempted. He attempted over 500 significant strikes in this fight. 10 of 18 takedowns. Dude, it was a torrential monsoon downpour of offense. And I always liken him to rain. It's not that the rain itself is a hurricane in the sense that you're getting trapped and it's all just the most intense maelstrom you've ever seen in your life.

No. It's just consistent applied rain. It just stays there, and no one can find an umbrella underneath it. Man, he's ready. He's ready for the title level, Luke. Just two months before that Lawler win, as I mentioned, the title changed hands. So now we're in full-on build toward this grudge match. But Luke,

you could argue that once they finally fought their first time in December 2019, one of the greatest action fights in UFC title history, it had actually kind of calmed down. That promotion and build-up that three months was very just regular compared to what we saw after the Robbie Lawler win in August of 2019. Initially, I mean, that was red hot.

They run into each other in a buffet in Las Vegas, and they nearly come to blows. Yeah, along with the Major Elliott Bill Zs, yeah. And, you know, again, Colby's not pro-UFC at this moment. He's bringing the title to all the interim title that got stripped from him everywhere. Remember, he was haggling Dana and showing up to his spot when he's playing blackjack. He's clowning Dana. He's public enemy number one to everybody.

But yet, this Robbie Lawler win restored whatever was lost from him getting stripped of the interim title because he couldn't fight at that exact moment. He's going to get the title fight anyway as we enter UFC 245 to close off in December of 2019, to close off that calendar year. What do you remember about the true chances you were giving Colby of beating Kamaru Usman? Because look, at its core, if Kamaru Usman never existed, Colby Covington might have been the title holder for like the last four years in this division. He just happened to find somebody, true or false, in his era, in his division, at the same time, who is like him but better.

Yeah, basically. They have slightly different games. Well, they have very different games. But this wasn't Usman fully transitioned yet. This was still with Henry Hooft. I always say this. Everyone gives Trevor Whitman credit for changing Kamar Usman, and you should. He did great things. But, dude, he got Trevor Whitman credit for changing Kamar Usman, and you should. Like, he did great things.

But, dude, he got to a championship level with Henry Hooft. Like, that is a real thing that actually happened. I remember thinking this one, there was going to be wrestling, right? Obviously, there was a little bit more in the second one. And there wasn't any. So, that was a surprise. I remember thinking, if there wasn't wrestling, I didn't see a viable path for Colby. Yes.

Which ended up being true, except we go back to, we'll talk about the second fight later, but also remember, round five, when he gets knocked down twice and gets his jaw broken, heading into that, it's 2-2, 3-1 Kamaru, 3-1 Colby. Dude, that was anyone's fight, quite literally, heading into round five. Mark Goddard played a role. He was overwhelmed, but barely. Yeah, and I want to get into that in a second. I was just setting the table of what we thought. I thought the same thing. You know, whose's wrestling is going to win out it's probably going to cancel each other out i didn't think it would they would just completely give up on it altogether right but look to really like double down on how much colby was hated in addition to

being against the ufc doing the full-on trump thing being the full-on villain he had turned on everyone at att during this time as well he was was in a public feud with Joanna at one point. He was in a feud suddenly with the beginnings of the Dustin one, which is still fresh and live now. I think there was some Jorge's at this point. Some like, you know, I can't defend this guy anymore. With all that said, and with my expectation that he just was inevitably going to lose his decision here against the decision machine that is Usman.

Dude, I never thought Colby was this tough to be able to stand in what turned out to be a five-round kickboxing match, but more just a boxing match. They were both gritty as shit. He won me over. This was the moment. It should have happened before, but really, this was the moment in defeat, fifth-round TKO, where the scorecards, if Goddard would have let him go the distance, dude, I didn't think he was that good. I didn't think he was that good. Turns out he's great.

He's a great fighter. A lot of times people think that a guy who fights like Colby is afraid of contact. Like he'll dish it, but when it comes his way, they just completely wilt. They can't take any. In fact, that's why they fight that way. Almost like a bully because they don't want to receive anything on the other end so i'll just say this this was a fight where he abandoned his wrestling both guys did obviously bit down on the mouthpiece and met the guy in the center now it didn't end up being enough for him on that night but it was the kind of frankly let's call it what it was championship medal that it was a certain intensity he was matching kamaru basically

you know again all the judges were split but round for round up until that fifth. And that's when Kamaru showed how much better he was. Big power. And if you didn't know, he had won back Dana's love with this performance. Dana would go on to say from the moment it ended that it's like his favorite, one of his favorite fights in UFC history. You felt the rematch was going to be inevitable coming out of this. Colby played it well, I thought, blaming it on Mark Goddard, keeping himself pumped up. Luke, in between, there's not much to say about this. September of 2020, it would be almost a year later when Colby finally does come back because Usman went the way of Jorge Masvidal.

It's Tyron Woodley, but it's Tyron Woodley damaged goods. And Colby absolutely dominates him in a fifth-round TKO stoppage due to rib injury. But, Luke, it would look like it was going to be a stoppage inevitably. You know what's funny about this fight? I went back and I watched it this morning just to be sure. And, dude, Colby, I'm not saying barely tries. That's not fair or true.

But he doesn't have nearly the same intensity he did for, like, the Dos Anjos fight or the Lawler fight. There wasn't that much hate in the build of this fight. No, there wasn't. And I've got to say, by the time he did it, I think Colby knew he was way better. Tyron was on the outs at this point. Colby knew he needed a big win to get a chance at being in the Usman Swishti. That's right. That's right.

So he turned in, I won't call it pedestrian performance because he actually got the stoppage in the end. But also Tyron was at the very last legs of his MMA career at that point. But, dude, Colby was just, what do you want to say? And had Tyron engaged like he did against Luque, he's just going to get taken down, balled and gassed out anyway. Luke, it took a while. It would take another full year, but the final fight in the arc of Colby-Covington. Last thing, I know we've got to go, but I will say I do feel like we missed out on the kind of fight Colby versus Tyron in their prime should have happened,

which is why actually I am liking the fact that he's fighting Jorge because him and Kumaru were rivals, and we've seen that, but they're so close. But now we've got two guys with very different styles who also hate each other, so that might make for an interesting fight. It was two and a half years too late, to be really fair. Agreed. You know, Colby versus Woodley. Luke, it would turn out Colby, by sitting out, he would sit out over a year, 13 months.

He ends up getting the second chance at Kamaru Usman. After Kamaru Usman knocks Jorge Masvidal the hell out. Luke, there was a little bit of customer fatigue. Why are we, you know, are we not as much as the Masvidal rematch for Usman, but a little bit of, okay, first fight was so much fun. I get it. Let's do it a second time. But I think a lot of people thought if that was the very best of Covington the first time around and they, it was a-round war on the feet. Dude, Usman's so much better since then. Right, right. But the one caveat.

So much better. The one caveat. Two caveats heading into this fire. Two things to remember. One, there was bad blood after when Colby beat Lawler, and then they do that thing on ESPN. Karen Bryant's on stage. I forget who else is there.

Rashad. Rashad was on stage. And then when they had that ugly moment, we're like, oh, man, it's going to be so ugly. The second time around, Colby tried making fun of Kamaru Usman's father being incarcerated and stuff like that. But Kamaru never took the bait, really. He never made it more than that. It was still a big fight, don't get me wrong. And by the way, this is the time Colby's booed in Chicago, I think that's where it was, against RDA, booed in Newark against Robbie Lawler, cheered against Kamaru Usman the second time they fought.

It was this past November, New York City, UFC 268, MSG. It's a big deal. It's legit. Kamaru had stopped Gilbert Burns, knocked Masvidal the hell out. Luke, I kind of had the feeling maybe Usman could stop Colby earlier than he did the first time. But it wasn't that fight. In fact, it was a close fight. And it goes the full five-round distance. And I want to remember the first time. But it wasn't that fight. In fact, it was a close fight. And it goes the full five-round distance.

And I want to remember the scores here. A unanimous decision for Kamaru Usman. 48-47 on two scorecards. 49-46 on the third. Luke, what is the argument? And after re-watching this fight two, three times, there is an argument. What is the argument for Colby Covington

maybe winning this fight? One, there's the controversy around the takedown. Did he get it? Not that that would have changed the complexion of the round, but if you just look at the numbers, he's a little bit short overall on volume, and he did get knocked down twice in the second, and that hurts his overall argument a lot. So you were numerically outstruck, and you were dropped. But dude, he rallies after that pretty significantly. In the fourth round, and in the fifth, actually in the fourth round, he outstrikes him pretty significantly. And in the third and in the fifth, it's very, very, very, very close. So this is what I always talk about.

Like, pay attention to what someone does in MMA the round after something bad happens to them. Perfect example, Michael Bisping taking on Anderson Silva gets dropped, I think, in the end of the third or end of the fourth, whatever one it was. Then in the next round, third, comes out in the fourth, and that's his best round of the fight. Stuck it fucking to him. Now, Kamaru resists a lot of the same things that Anderson ultimately fell victim to, but this is what I'm talking about. Dude, he comes out in that third round and begins to just, the will is significant. And he attempts at least four takedowns, doesn't get them,

but is trying to just do that thing. And he's out of ATT, something we forgot to say. He's with MMA Masters. He's doing something different. How much better, as a complete well-rounded fighter, do you think that Colby in the rematch to Kamaru was compared to the first? Much better. The takedowns, you know, it didn't go the way that, there was more of them, at least attempted, but it didn't go. But dude, this is this thing that people get lost

Colby has developed a series of really good weapons and scenarios in terms of strike selection that he's really good about throwing right so he mixes everything into what he wants to do where the whole throw and look for a collar tie or throw and look for An underhook or some kind of arrangement. He's a boxer too. Yeah, and he's just steady volume He just again. It's rain. You're constantly trying to see through what's happening and it's hard to get a good look at it he did put some of that on kamaru kamaru was a little bit more on the back foot so to speak than i think folks had anticipated now kamaru did well of course but yeah dude colby really was could you say he was the equal not because of the knockdowndowns, but for the knockdowns, pretty equal. It's a loss, but as we've seen along this arc of Colby Covington

since making his UFC debut in 2014, he has responded very well to those first two losses. This will be his chance to respond to that third loss the second time against Usman when he faces Jorge Masvidal, the former teammate this Saturday. UFC 272, you know Morning Combat's going to have it all. Preview, review, recap, all that, and then some tall, pale, and handsome. This is Brian Campbell. Luke Thomas next to me.

Resume review, Colby Covington in the books. In the books. Happy to have it done. Enjoy the fights.