Tag: ufc tampa

Colby Covington: The Doctor Beat Me At UFC Tampa, Not Joaquin Buckley

Colby Covington does not believe that he was beaten by the better man in the main event of the final UFC event of 2024 this past weekend. The former interim welterweight champion stepped in on several weeks notice to take on Joaquin Buckley at the Amalie Arena after Ian Machado Garry was moved into the […]

Colby Covington does not believe that he was beaten by the better man in the main event of the final UFC event of 2024 this past weekend. The former interim welterweight champion stepped in on several weeks notice to take on Joaquin Buckley at the Amalie Arena after Ian Machado Garry was moved into the co-main event of UFC 310.

The fight ended in the third round after the doctor waved the fight off due to a cut above the right eye of Covington. “New Mansa” appeared to open up the cut with an uppercut early on in the fight which continued to get worse as Buckley dominated the contest.

In between rounds, the doctor had even warned Covington ahead of time that if he didn’t do a better job or protecting the eye, she would be forced to stop the fight, claiming that he would lose the eyelid if he continued past the third round. The cut was significant but we have certainly seen fights continue with worse injuries and that sentiment was echoed by both Dana White and “Chaos” himself.

Covington spoke in a behind the scenes video posted on his YouTube channel about the outcome of the fight and how badly he was impacted by the cut. Despite this, he still believes that it shouldn’t have been stopped and that in his opinion, the fight was starting to turn in his favor. At the time of the stoppage, all three judges had Buckley winning both of the first two rounds.

“We came in close contact, and I felt like there was a headbutt, and as soon as it cut in the first round, I couldn’t see,” Covington said. “I had blurred vision, I was seeing three different people, I was like, ‘F**k, which one do I punch?’ I didn’t know what to do. I was kind of confused, but I knew I had to keep fighting. I had to give the UFC and the fans a show. That’s what they pay their hard-earned money to come for and I’m a warrior. We’re gladiators. I’m not going to stop.

“I’ve had way worse in fights than a little cut over my eye, so it’s unfortunate that the doctor stopped the fight like that because if we’re in Vegas, I know the fight gets to keep going. I feel like I was really just starting to gain momentum. Like I was starting to wear him out, I could see him breathing out of his mouth. There wasn’t as much volume at that point, so I feel like it was going to be my fight in the championship rounds, so it was an unfortunate stop and I feel like the doctor is the one that beat me tonight. I didn’t feel like I lost to another opponent.”

UFC Rankings Report: Colby Covington On The Brink Of Top 10 Exit After Tampa Defeat

As always, the latest action on offer inside the Octagon has seen some climb the ladder toward contention and others fall away. And in the aftermath of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night in Tampa, MMA News has you covered with this week’s updates to the official UFC rankings. Men’s Pound-For-Pound: No changes. Women’s Pound-for-Pound: No changes. Women’s Strawweight: No changes. Women’s […]

As always, the latest action on offer inside the Octagon has seen some climb the ladder toward contention and others fall away.

And in the aftermath of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night in Tampa, MMA News has you covered with this week’s updates to the official UFC rankings.

Men’s Pound-For-Pound: No changes.

Women’s Pound-for-Pound: No changes.

Women’s Strawweight: No changes.

Women’s Flyweight: Miranda Maverick didn’t perform as she had hoped on Saturday night, but she still got the job done over Jamey-Lyn Horth and has returned to the UFC rankings as a result. She’s now at #15, with her entry pushing out Casey O’Neill entirely.

Women’s Bantamweight: No changes.

Flyweight: Manel Kape was among the biggest winners to emerge from 2024’s final event, as he put on a show en route to stopping Bruno Silva with strikes in round three. “Starboy” has subsequently climbed three places to #6. The defeated Brazilian, meanwhile, has dropped one spot behind Charles Johnson (#12) to #13.

Bantamweight: No changes.

Featherweight: No changes.

Lightweight: No changes.

Welterweight: The final UFC winner of this year was Joaquin Buckley, who dominated former interim champion Colby Covington to stake his claim for a title eliminator next time out. The victory has seen “New Mansa” surge three places up the ladder to #6. “Chaos” has gone the same distance the other way, leaving him at #9 and on the brink of exiting the division’s top 10.

Middleweight: No changes.

Light Heavyweight: No changes.

Heavyweight: No changes.

You can view the full updated UFC rankings here.

“Bodacious Cheeks!” – UFC Veteran Angela Hill Dishes Praise on This Fighter’s Assets

"Bodacious Cheeks!" - UFC Veteran Angela Hill Dishes Praise on This Fighter's AssetsVitor Petrino may not have gotten the win at UFC Tampa, but he earned himself a new fan in…

"Bodacious Cheeks!" - UFC Veteran Angela Hill Dishes Praise on This Fighter's Assets

Vitor Petrino may not have gotten the win at UFC Tampa, but he earned himself a new fan in strawweight standout Angela Hill.

Coming off a first-round submission loss against Anthony ‘Lionheart’ Smith in May, Petrino was determined to close out his 2024 with a bang and climb back into the win column. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be after Dustin Jacoby blasted him with an earth-shattering right hook that sent him crashing to the canvas with little more than a minute to go in their fight.

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Angela Hill appreciates Petrino’s ‘Jiggle Physics’

While Petrino may have suffered one of the more brutal knockouts on the night, ‘Overkill’ couldn’t help but show her appreciation for the Brazilian’s gluteus maximus.

“But I just wanted to mention, Petrino’s booty is bodacious,” Hill said on her 2 Straws podcast with Jessica Penne. “Oh, what is that guy eating? What am I missing out on? Damn, girl. Girl, I am a fan of a booty, okay?

“This is another video game reference. Remember when they first started adding, um, just like the jiggle of different body parts in fighting games? And like the volleyball game and stuff? He had jiggle physics going crazy on his butt cheeks.”

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After amassing an 11-0 record in mixed martial arts, Petrino is now sitting on back-to-back losses inside the Octagon. On the bright side, he’s got himself a pretty big fan in Hill — even if she just likes him for his derrière donut.

UFC Tampa Winner Confident Of His Chances Against Ilia Topuria: ‘Carries Himself Like He’s Better Than He Is’

UFC featherweight Sean Woodson sees himself as a difficult matchup for champion Ilia Topuria. Woodson was one of the biggest winners to emerge from this past weekend’s year-ending UFC Fight Night in Tampa, where he stopped the highly touted Fernando Padilla with strikes seconds out from the first round coming to a close. The result […]

UFC featherweight Sean Woodson sees himself as a difficult matchup for champion Ilia Topuria.

Woodson was one of the biggest winners to emerge from this past weekend’s year-ending UFC Fight Night in Tampa, where he stopped the highly touted Fernando Padilla with strikes seconds out from the first round coming to a close.

The result has left “The Sniper” riding a four-fight win streak and unbeaten across his last seven — a run that has him tied with ranked standouts Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy for the longest active unbeaten streak in the featherweight division.

With that in mind, Woodson is looking to join them in the top 15 soon enough as he looks to surge all the way to the gold, which is currently held by the undefeated Topuria.

And should “El Matador” still be on the throne when he gets there, the Missouri native likes his chances.

During his post-fight press conference, Woodson expressed confidence when it comes to how he matches up against the Spaniard.

Given his height and frame, “The Sniper” insisted that he wouldn’t fall to the same fate against Topuria as both Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway did this year.

“(Topuria’s) super good – what he’s done so far is,” Woodson said. “But I’m not going to hold my tongue at all. I don’t feel like he’d be able to do me the way he’s done other people at all. He’s too small, too short. I’m a bad matchup for him. I saw online somebody say he gets up to like 187 (pounds), 190 (outside of camp). I don’t believe that at all. I don’t even get that big. He carries himself like he’s better than he is.

“I will say that I would love to fight him. I know I’m a long ways off from that, but I want that fight bad. I would love to fight him one day. I know it sounds crazy. I haven’t had the best (résumé). I ain’t fought (big names), whatever,” Woodson continued. “But I’m telling you right now, they do not do me like he’s done everybody.”

Woodson has plenty of work to do before having the opportunity to prove that assessment correct opposite Topuria inside the Octagon.

For now, he’ll be celebrating his latest triumph on MMA’s biggest stage and looking ahead to what he’ll no doubt hope will be a big 2025 in the career of “The Sniper.”

VIDEO: Israel Adesanya Reacts To Inclusion In Manel Kape’s UFC Tampa Octagon Interview

One of the stand out performances from the final UFC event of 2024 came courtesy of Manel “Starboy” Kape. The flyweight contender returned to the win column with one of his best performances inside the Octagon to date against Bruno Silva. Kape looked incredibly fast and accurate in Tampa and though he can still be […]

One of the stand out performances from the final UFC event of 2024 came courtesy of Manel “Starboy” Kape. The flyweight contender returned to the win column with one of his best performances inside the Octagon to date against Bruno Silva.

Kape looked incredibly fast and accurate in Tampa and though he can still be a divisive character, displays like this make it easy to remember why some fans were so excited for him to arrive in the UFC. It doesn’t seem like this win will be enough for him to get his first shot at the title but he won’t be far off following this victory.

Former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was enjoying some food whilst watching the Portuguese stand out go to work during his YouTube reactions to the fights.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he heard his own name after Kape used his time on the mic to reignite an old feud. At UFC 293, Kape and Adesanya got into a heated exchange at the press conference due to the flyweight’s comments about one of Adesanya’s close teammates, Kai Kara-France.

After getting his hand raised, Kape spent part of his post-fight interview calling out the likes of Kara-France, Adesanya and Brandon Moreno. Having just given “Starboy” lots of credit for his performance, “The Last Stylebender” was caught off guard but he did find the whole thing amusing rather than taking it to heart.

“Why’d he say f*** me for? Man, I give this guy this credit like he’s looking nice and then he said ‘F*** you’. Hey, I still keep it real man, he f****** showed out. Hey man, this shows I been in his head this whole time, I didn’t even think it was like that but he did well, good job… little b**** a** n****.”

Chael Sonnen Claims He Was Ready To Throw In The Towel While Cornering Colby Covington At UFC Tampa

If the doctor hadn’t have called off Colby Covington’s UFC Tampa main event this past weekend, cornerman Chael Sonnen was seemingly prepared to. Sonnen had a cageside view as the former interim welterweight champion returned to action 12 months on from his third failed attempt at capturing the undisputed crown. Covington made the walk to […]

If the doctor hadn’t have called off Colby Covington’s UFC Tampa main event this past weekend, cornerman Chael Sonnen was seemingly prepared to.

Sonnen had a cageside view as the former interim welterweight champion returned to action 12 months on from his third failed attempt at capturing the undisputed crown.

Covington made the walk to headline the year-ending UFC Fight Night on short notice, doing battle with the charging Joaquin Buckley inside Amalie Arena.

The polarizing veteran’s pursuit of a fourth shot at the gold began in difficult fashion, with “New Mansa” opening up a deep cut above his eye early before largely beating “Chaos” up through two rounds. And the first-round wound became so severe that the doctor stepped in to call off proceedings.

Both Dana White and Covington expressed disagreement with the call in the aftermath. One of those in the defeated fighter’s team, however, was apparently prepared to make the decision if the physician had not.

During a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Sonnen reflected on fight night in Florida, where Covington fell to a 2-4 record across his last six bouts and 0-4 against names currently inside the rankings at 170 pounds.

Interestingly, “The American Gangster” suggested he had the towel close by to throw in after seeing Covington’s struggles to fight through the deep and bloody cut.

“Colby was getting hit on his feet with everything you could do, he’s busted open so bad that the doctor has to look at it three times,” Sonnen said (h/t Bloody Elbow). “Twice, he stops the action to let it keep going, the third time he goes, ‘Man we can’t keep going anymore.’ I was going to stop that fight, I already grabbed the towel.

“When the doctor came in for the third time, and I’m watching that blood, it’s not stopping,” Sonnen continued. “It’s going into the eye, and that’s the only thing you’re really looking for. When we as fight fans, as ‘tough guys’, think the doctor should’ve stopped it, we’re talking about it doesn’t matter how bad the cut is from our perspective, as long as it’s not going in the eye. If it’s blinding the guy, it doesn’t matter if it’s a little or a lot…it’s the exact same thing. I said, ‘Hand me that towel, I’m stopping this.’”

That ultimately wasn’t required, however, with the cageside doctor advising referee Dan Miragliotta to wave off the contest in fear of Covington losing his eyelid.

With that, “Chaos” has now gone winless across a second straight calendar year, having not had his hand raised since a pay-per-view main event opposite longtime rival Jorge Masvidal in March 2022.