Love him or hate him, Colby Covington knows how to win. And he did so in dominating fashion at UFC Newark on Saturday.
In front of Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, Covington — an open Donald Trump supporter and proud MAGA hat-wearer — put on a nearly perfect performance in the Octagon and soundly defeated former American Top Team teammate Robbie Lawler.
The bad blood between Covington and Lawler had been building towards their fight, with Covington publicly calling Lawler and "diva' and claiming he "betrayed" the gym by leaving for Hard Knocks 365 in Fort Lauderdale. It's unclear if his disdain for Lawler added extra motivation for Covington, but he was clearly on a mission to dismantle his former teammate.
Covington threw over 500 strikes on top of his 20 takedown attempts in route to his unanimous decision win over Robbie Lawler (50-44, 50-45, 50-45). Covington's relentless pace — a nearly perfect mixture of stirking and grappling — shut down the former welterweight champion Robbie Lawler for almost the entirety of the match. While Lawler did have some moments in the third and then again in the fifth, landing some powerful punches, they only briefly stunned Covington, who continued to swarm with a constant stream of strikes, kicks, and takedown attempts.
Adding insult to injury, Covington connected with a spinning backfist and then stuck his tongue out at Lawler. Following the win, Colby Covington, the former interim welterweight champion, immediately called out current welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.
The two met face-to-face on the ESPN post-fight show and it certainly didn't lack fireworks.
A championship fight between Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman seems an almost certainty right now, and you can bet there will be some crazy trash-talking building towards it.