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Down, but not out.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight contender, Colby Covington, could be sidelined for up to six months or longer after suffering a broken jaw against Kamaru Usman in the UFC 245 pay-per-view (PPV) main event last weekend in Las Vegas.
But failing to back up months of pre-fight trash talk has not deterred “Chaos” from believing he’s still the best in the world, which is why his coach, Dan Lambert, expects Covington to make his Octagon return at some point in 2020 as confident as ever.
“He came back to Florida to go see an oral surgeon here to figure out what he wanted to do,” Lambert told MMA Fighting. “He wants to get right back in. He wants to get right back into training. He wants to get back into training as soon as he’s ready health-wise. He wants to get back and prove that he’s the best. He’s 1,000 percent positive, 1,000 percent motivated. He’s ready to go. He didn’t lose one piece of confidence in himself.”
Depending on his timeline for return, Covington (15-2) could be paired off against one of many bitter rivals in the form of ex-welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, who like “Chaos,” came up short against Usman earlier this year in Las Vegas.
It’s also not unreasonable to think he’s not far off from a championship rematch, based on his “Fight of the Night” performance against Usman, though Covington may have to take a number behind fellow contenders Jorge Masvidal and Leon Edwards.
“You can hate the guy, you can want to see him get merked but after putting on a performance like that and going to war the way he went to war and knowing he broke his jaw early in the fight, how can you not have respect for that?” Lambert said.