Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC
All-American wrestler, Colby Covington, will battle with former Welterweight champion, Robbie Lawler, this Saturday (Aug. 3, 2019) at UFC on ESPN 5 from inside Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
People hate Colby Covington — he’s given them every reason to — but the hatred tends to make fans ignore the facts. The most important of which is that Covington is a damn good fighter, perhaps the best Welterweight in a very talent-rich division. He’s the man who ended dos Anjos’ Welterweight run, and he battered Demian Maia worse than anyone else. “Chaos” deserved his interim strap and should’ve received the first shot at Tyron Woodley, a match up that favors him in my opinion. Instead, he’ll have to deal with another dangerous veteran first, then face a much tougher foe in Kamaru Usman if he’s to claim the official strap.
Let’s take a closer look at his skill set:
Striking
Covington’s whole approach to fighting is based on the strength of his conditioning. A smaller Welterweight, the Southpaw pushes a ridiculous pace in all aspects of fighting, and on the feet that means an incredible amount of volume.
Let me clarify one thing first: Covington did not fight like he usually does against Demian Maia. In the first round, Covington ate some clean blows from Maia, leading to many completely writing off his kickboxing. It’s true that Covington got hit, but he adjusted his stance specifically for Maia: Covington glued his hands to his forehead and leaned forward, presenting Maia an easy target but keeping his hips back from the potential shot. It was awkward positioning, but the point was to make Maia engage without getting taken down.
It worked. Perfectly. Maia lands some nice left hands early, sure, but Covington landed back, and it wasn’t long before he had completely taken over and battered the Brazilian.
Aside from that anomaly, Covington’s kickboxing has steadily improved while remaining consistent in his methodology. Covington is no technical wonder, but he throws hard punches at an insane rate and makes an effort to get his head off the center line — that’s more than enough to make him dangerous.
“Chaos” has good instincts as well (GIF). He understands when it’s time to step in hard behind his punches or pop off a few jabs and keep his head back. His money punches are the left overhand and right hook. In both cases, Covington slips his head off the center line well, turning the punch over hard at an angle that often allows him to slip straight punches (GIF). Like Daniel Cormier, Covington will often “fall over” on his punches as a form of head movement that flows directly into a takedown attempt.
Covington is a strong kicker as well. His last three fights — and three biggest wins — came opposite fellow Southpaws, which meant that he was largely unable to blast his left kick to the mid-section. However, Covington adjusted well, proving his lead leg round kick is fairly powerful as well and aiming his left leg at the calf. In addition, Covington likes to mix snap kicks up the middle, which he’ll often follow up with long punches. On occasion, Covington will leap into the air with a flying knee and use that to hide a takedown attempt or flurry (GIF).
In the clinch, Covington is an active striker. He does a good job at securing one deep underhook and hanging on his opponent’s other arm. Eventually, he’ll come over top their underhook with an elbow or break entirely with a spinning strike.
Covington’s volume and aggression mean he’s definitely going to get hit. Sometimes, he slips too much when throwing his punches, meaning he’s off-balance and vulnerable to follow up strikes. In general, however, Covington’s commitment to closing the distance quickly means he rarely absorbs full power blows.
Wrestling
A Division 1 All-American wrestler and 2x Pac-10 champ out of OSU, Covington is among the most decorated wrestlers in the UFC currently. In the cage, Covington has dominated most of his competition largely on the strength of his wrestling.
One of the more special things about Covington’s wrestling is that he can really do it all. Covington can drive opponents from their feet in the opening with a double leg. He can overpower foes in the clinch. Perhaps most importantly, Covington can chain wrestle extremely well along the fence.
Covington transitions between the single leg, body lock, and double leg takedown extremely well. Though it’s really his signature strategy, perhaps the best, most dominant example came against Dong Hyun Kim. Kim was then ranked as the seventh best Welterweight in the world — and strangely hasn’t fought since their June 2017 bout — and Covington dominated him.
Against the larger Judo master, Covington wasted no time in using a single leg to drive Kim into the fence. Once there, Covington pulled Kim off the fence momentarily with the leg, allowing him to move to the body lock. From there, Covington off-balanced his foe enough to slip his head to the outside and cut the corner, taking the back clinch. From that position, Covington proved his grip strength excellent by hanging and wearing on Kim, constantly looking to force small trips or threatening the back take/mat return. When Kim turned towards Covington in an attempt to scrape him off his back, Covington dropped into a double leg and planted him on the mat.
Over and over, this sequence of transitions played out, sometimes in the opposite order or with a different finish. Either way, Kim was unable to shake Covington.
In the clinch, one of Covington’s favorite takedowns is the knee pick, which is the subject of this week’s technique highlight:
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Covington has finished five of his opponents via submission, each by way of rear naked choke or arm-triangle choke. These are the classic submissions of a transitional wrestler, someone who dominates by getting behind his opponent and working into a dominant position.
The rear naked choke comes as a result of Covington’s wrestling talent. The way Covington drags his foe to the mat often encourages them to turn away in an attempt to stand. Usually, Covington will immediately look to catch his foe’s wrist, wrapping up a two-on-one grip. From that position, Covington can pummel his opponent with the free hand, and he’s often able to slip a hook on soon.
While maintaining control of the wrist, Covington will hip in and flatten his opponent. Once there, it’s largely a matter of whether his foe presents the neck or stays flat that determines whether Covington will earn a submission or technical knockout stoppage.
The arm triangle often presents itself from a similar situation. As Covington hangs on the wrist, his other arm can wrap around the arm and neck to really weigh down on his opponent. If his opponent tries to turn to his back, he’ll fall directly into the arm triangle.
Defensively, Covington was submitted by Warlley Alves’ nasty guillotine choke in his ninth professional fight. It’s not too uncommon for high-level wrestlers to suffer a submission loss like that early in their fight careers, as they can be a bit too confident that the submission can fail. Since then, Covington has done a nice job of securing the proper angle outside of his opponents leg when threatened by the guillotine.
Conclusion
Covington is a threat to just about every Welterweight on the roster. His combination of high-volume kickboxing and non-stop transitional wrestling is an exhausting mix, one that can break even seasoned combatants. There’s always the chance that Lawler sleeps him early, but a win guarantees Covington finally gets his true shot at gold.
Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, is a professional fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport’s most elite fighters.