Colby Covington’s coach, Chael Sonnen, revealed that he was about to give up on Covington before the doctor’s stoppage.
The bout between Joaquin Buckley and Colby Covington turned out to be more brutal than fans expected as both fighters went at it with each other, exchanging savage punches. Towards the third round, Buckley scored a hit that opened a cut on Covington’s eyelid. The cut seemed pretty deep, and coach Chael Sonnen was ready to end the match when he saw how bad and deep the cut was.
“He’s busted open so bad the doctor has to look at it three times,” Sonnen said about the fight on his YouTube channel. “Twice, he stops the action to let it keep going. The third time, he said, ‘We can’t go 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 was not stopping, and it was going into the eye. That’s the only thing you’re really looking for.
“When we as fight fans, we as tough guys, think the doctor should have stopped it, we’re talking about it doesn’t really matter how bad the cut is from our perspective as long as it’s not going in the eye. If it’s blinding a guy, it doesn’t matter if it’s a little or a lot. If it’s in his eye, and he can no longer see out of that eye, it’s the same thing. It’s the exact same thing.”
Covington was disappointed with the stoppage and didn’t stick around for the post-fight conference. He believes the doctor called the fight too early and should have left him to battle it out with Buckley. Some fighters agreed with him, including UFC CEO Dana White. However, Sonnen believed the doctor was right to stop the fight as the injury was quite extensive and the bleeding was already getting into the Brit’s eye.
“This was bad,” Sonnen said about the cut. “This was in the eye. I literally stood up so I could see what the doctor was doing. And I told Charlie, the No. 2 [coach], I said ‘hand me that towel, I’m stopping this.’ I bring that to you because the referee was taking some criticism. Well, let me be fair here. I saw what they saw.”
Although the fight didn’t go as planned by Covington’s team, Sonnen commended the fighter for his resilience and impressive display of sportsmanship. It looked like Covington was going to shift the winds after scoring a takedown in the second round. However, Buckley was always one move away.
He praised Covington for standing his ground against Buckleys’ punches. He also wished the fight went for more rounds as Covington is known for his stamina and withstanding the pressure in the cage,
“I think we were down both rounds going into the third,” Sonnen said. “But then I was told that one of the judges had it 1-1. I’m not here to relive that. I just felt that the tide was turning. Buckley was a real sport about that. He said, ‘Hey, I was fading a little bit’, and it’s vital that Buckley understands that.
“Because Buckley did nothing wrong. He just has to learn how to extend. If you’re going to be fighting like this, you do such a good job with the media. He’s going to be headlining events. So, that means he’s going to be in the five-round club, and it’s good for Buckley to know where that energy goes.”
“There was nowhere Colby even winced,” Sonnen said. “There was nowhere that he flinched. And There was never a time he stepped backwards. There was not a time he went down, and I offer you that because there was a time that he went down, but it wasn’t from a punch. There was a punch, and he slipped as he went down.
“When you look at the grit meter, this was one of Colby’s best fights. When you look at the digging deep, this does not replace the fight with Kamaru Usman. but, godd*mn, it’s right there. But When you look at grit, you look at the shots that he took, you look at the damage that they did. He did not care.”
With the loss to Joquin Buckley, Colby Covington fell to 17-5 as a pro.
