UFC star Colby Covington recently announced his retirement from the UFC cage, and surprisingly, his former opponent, Nigerian fighter Kamaru Usman, was among the most shocked, as he believes the fighter still has a lot to offer.
The retirement was not an amicable one, as Covington has had issues with the UFC for a while. The fighter hadn’t stepped into the cage since his loss to Joaquin Buckley in 2024 and was looking forward to a spot on the UFC White House card. Unfortunately, he wasn’t included on the card. This dismissal further added to his resolve to retire, and his status on the UFC roster has since changed from active to retired.
Covington had been active under the Real American Freestyle promotion, picking up dominant wins over Luke Rockhold and Dillon Danis. As an avid supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, Covington was disappointed not to be included in the promotion’s UFC Freedom 250 card at the White House on June 14. While Henry Cejudo thinks that played a part in Covington’s decision to call it quits, Usman disagrees.
During a recent edition of the “Pound 4 Pound” podcast, Usman told Henry Cejudo that he doesn’t quite understand Covington hanging up his gloves.
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily as deep as saying he’s (doing it) out of spite because of the White House card. I don’t think it’s necessarily that deep,” Usman said on his “Pound 4 Pound” podcast with Cejudo. “Honestly, the activity is much less, and he has expressed his willingness to want to get in there, to want to fight and be compensated the way he feels is necessary.
“There’s a lot of unhappiness and disgruntlement from not just Covington, but quite a few different athletes. But Covington hasn’t been getting that frequency of activity and not that he can’t compete, because we do know he can compete because he is competing at RAF, and he’s doing pretty well. There’s some type of disconnect between Covington and the UFC, and why they can’t get him in there, or why he isn’t getting the fights that he wants, or just fights period.”
“Obviously, I have a long history with Colby Covington, which is a really, really deep and connected history,” Usman said. “So, for him, I don’t understand why he retired, because let’s be honest: Any fight Covington is going to be in is going to be a fight you want to keep your eye on, because either you like him or you hate him, you want to see this guy.”
Despite his retirement from the UFC, Covington has found a home with freestyle wrestling promotion RAF, where he’s 2-0 with wins over former UFC champion Luke Rockhold and Dillon Danis. Covington is set to battle Chris Weidman in the co-main event of RAF 09 on May 30 at College Park Centre in Dallas.
