Duck Got Ducked?

Covington claims Shavkat Rakhmonov is ducking him, but the only clear duck here was Colby ducking Ian Garry in Tampa.

We’re coming up on the final UFC event of the year in Tampa, which just happens to make it Colby Covington fight week.

It wasn’t originally like that. Ian Garry was set to face Jaoquin Buckley in the Fight Night main event, but he was peeled off the card to fight Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310. That led to the UFC getting Covington to replace him — something “Chaos” doesn’t seem particularly excited about. But after several months of turning down fights claiming his foot was injured, UFC got Covington to admit he was ready to compete … if it was against Shavkat.

“Yeah, S—trat is ducking me,” Colby concluded from the negotiations. “I called UFC, Hunter Campbell and Dana White to fight [Shavkat]. That’s the only fight I wanted: to fight him. I didn’t care about anyone else. They said they wanted to do the cuck fight [Garry vs. Rakhmonov], the undefeated vs. undefeated, it made sense to them.”

“So once I volunteered to fight [Shavkat] they said ‘Hey if you wanna fight, then come save this [Miami] event against Buckley.’”

“Now I have to come out and fight [Buckley].” Covington complained. “He does nothing for my career. But [Shavkat] did something because everyone had all this hype on him like he’s unbeatable. He hasn’t fought anybody. He hasn’t fought a top five contender. He hasn’t fought a legitimate contender and player in the welterweight division. So that’s the fight I wanted. Unfortunately it didn’t come together. But it’s okay, I can go end Buckley’s win streak this weekend and get right back into the title picture.”

The UFC was pestering Colby Covington for weeks trying to get him to fight Ian Machado Garry in the main event of this weekend’s UFC Fight Night event in Tampa, Florida. It just made sense: Covington talked a lot of trash about Garry and his family. Garry wanted the fight. And the event is in Colby’s backyard! Who turns down a headline fight in their own backyard? Colby, that’s who.

At least until he misplayed his hand trying to secure a bigger fight, which is basically all Covington ever does these days. And let’s not lie: it’s served him well. He’s sat out for long periods of time yet keeps bouncing back into contender matches and title bouts. This time the stars almost aligned to put him right into a No. 1 contender’s bout against Shavkat Rakhmonov.

But after turning down Garry several times, it seems the UFC was not interested in rewarding “Chaos” with that particular last minute opportunity. We still wouldn’t consider a headlining role in his home state a punishment, but Colby low-key admits Buckley is high risk low reward, and the bookies agree.

We’ll see how he does considering he’s fought just two times in nearly three years, and his last fight was absolutely dreadful.