Confronted with a two-fight shedding skid following his return over the weekend, Colby Covington appears to dispute his stoppage loss to Joaquin Buckley of their UFC Tampa headliner, claimined he was simply “warming up” forward of the fourth spherical.
Covington, who returned to motion following a year-long hiatus over the weekend at UFC Tampa, took on the streaking, Buckley having most just lately headlined UFC 296 in an undisputed welterweight title battle with former gold holder, Leon Edwards.
And struggling a second consecutive loss in his comeback battle towards Buckley, Clovis native Covington was pressured out of the headliner within the third spherical — with a sizeable laceration on his proper eyelid leading to a physician’s stoppage TKO defeat.
Colby Covington disputes UFC Tampa end towards Joaquin Buckley
Remaining optimistic following the loss, Colby Covington disputed the end to the bout, after additional claiming he was working his method into altering the tide of the pairing forward of the fourth spherical.
“We’re going to be back stronger than ever,” Colby Covington stated on his YouTube channel. “This is just the beginning for me. I wasn’t at my best tonight. I came off the couch, but it was for the company. I did this for the company that I love so much, that changed my life. I know that there’s still a lot of fight in me, and the best is yet to come. I was just getting warmed up in that fight.”
“I think it was tied up 1-1, and I was starting to wear on him. I could see him breathing out of his mouth. I was starting to catch him with more shots, so it’s unfortunate that they stopped it. Even Dana came out and said, ‘If that was in Vegas, that would have never been stopped.’ I took his hardest shots, and they were nothing. They didn’t faze me at all. I was walking right down, so we’ll come back stronger.”