Colby Covington has changed his tune on why he lost to Leon Edwards at UFC 296 five days ago. Or at the very least, he’s added something to the list of things he’s saying contributed to it.
Out of the chute, after his unanimous decision loss to the welterweight champion in Las Vegas, Covington said the judges were biased against him because of his vocal support of Donald Trump. Covington lost 49-46 on all three judges’ scorecards.
But now his narrative has shifted, and he says he broke his foot inside the first 30 seconds against Edwards, and that kept him off his game the rest of the way. That’s what he told pro-Trump podcaster Patrick Bet-David – though there’s no indication that Covington will abandon the storyline that the fight was scored against him because the judges were biased against Trump.
Covington threw several kicks in the first 20 seconds, though none landed cleanly. But a left high kick was blocked by Edwards, and Covington said his foot hitting the elbow broke it. Although he fought the rest of the 25-minute bout, and there was no indication on the broadcast that he seemed hurt, he appeared to limp and mildly shake the same foot at the end of the first five minutes. Bet-David said on his podcast that Covington was in the studio with a boot on the foot.
Covington, a former interim champion, did not mention the injury during his post-fight news conference and instead chose to lean into the judges punishing him for his Trump support.
Longtime regular Nevada judges Derek Cleary, Sal D’Amato and Chris Lee were charged with the main event at T-Mobile Arena, which was officiated by Herb Dean, and assigned this past week by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. According to MMA Decisions, D’Amato was the most used UFC judge in 2023 with 104 assigned bouts. Cleary was a ways behind him with 66, and Kamijo was in the top five in 2023 with 52 UFC fights.
Prior to his loss to Edwards, Covington was out for roughly 20 months. But his most recent bout before this past Saturday was a grudge match decision win over heated and hated rival and former friend and roommate Jorge Masvidal. Cleary and D’Amato were judges for that fight, as well, along with Junichiro Kamijo. Clearly scored that fight 50-44 for Covington; D’Amato had it 50-45. D’Amato, Cleary and Kamijo all have judged other past Covington decisions, including his losses to former champion Kamaru Usman.
Covington is a professed devout supporter of Trump, the twice-impeached former president who currently is under four separate federal indictments for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt; an attempt to overturn 2020 presidential election results in Georgia; mishandling classified documents that were removed from the White House after he was voted out of office by more than 7 million votes; and falsifying business records in New York.
According to the UFC’s stats provider, Covington outstruck Edwards 109-65 overall and had about four times as much control time. But Edwards landed two of three takedowns and had a pair of submission attempts, and though Covington is regarded as the superior wrestler, Edwards stuffed eight of his 10 takedown attempts.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 296.
