Chael Sonnen and Colby Covington, UFC Tampa ceremonial weigh-ins on the Amalie Enviornment, Dec. 13, 2024 Credit score: Jay Anderson/Cageside Press
Throwing the towel in is a sensitive topic between coaches and fighters, however UFC Corridor of Famer Chael Sonnen stated he was able to throw the towel in for Colby Covington at UFC Tampa.
Covington suffered a nasty lower within the first spherical in opposition to Joaquin Buckley in the primary occasion of UFC Tampa. The lower was fairly dangerous to start with however solely acquired worse because the battle went on and Buckley continued to focus on it.
The battle was stopped within the first spherical after the ref known as the physician in and determined to name the battle.
“He’s busted open so bad the doctor has to look at it three times. Twice he stops the action to let it keep going. The third time he said ‘we can’t go anymore’. I was going to stop that fight,” Sonnen stated on his YouTube channel.
“I already grabbed the towel. When the doctor came in for the third time, and I’m watching the blood, it’s not stopping. It is going into the eye.”
For somebody like Sonnen to be prepared to throw the towel in may be very telling. MMA fighters largely would moderately get completed than have their corners name it quits.
“When we as fight fans, we as tough guys, think the doctor should have stopped it, we’re talking about it doesn’t really matter how bad the cut is from our perspective as long as it’s not going in the eye. If it’s blinding a guy, it doesn’t matter if it’s a little or a lot, if it’s in his eye, and he can no longer see out of that eye, it’s the same thing,” he stated.
“This was bad. This was in the eye. I literally stood up so I could see what the doctor was doing. I told Charlie, the No. 2, I said ‘hand me that towel, I’m stopping this.’ I bring that to you because the referee was taking some criticism. Well, let me be fair here, I saw what they saw.”
Each Covington and UFC CEO Dana White got here out and stated the battle wouldn’t have been stopped if it happened in Las Vegas which, to be truthful, isn’t for positive.
Whatever the outcome Sonnen had loads of positives to say about Covington.
“When you look at the grit-meter, this was one of Colby’s best fights,” he stated.
“When you look at the digging deep, this does not replace the fight with Kamaru Usman but g*ddamn, it’s right there. When you look at grit, you look at the shots that he took, you look at the damage that they did, he did not care.”
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