Colby Covington on Monday criticized the fact that his UFC bout against Joaquin Buckley on Saturday in Tampa, Florida, was stopped after the third round due to excessive bleeding from a cut above his right eye.
“I was just warming up for that fight,” Covington said on his YouTube channel. “I think we were tied 1-1, and I was starting to get tired of him. I could see him breathing out of his mouth. I was starting to catch him with more shots, and they were starting to get tired of him. It’s a shame that it stopped.”
However, UFC legend Chel Sonnen, who was in Covington’s corner during the fight, revealed that he almost threw in the towel to end the fight before doctors intervened.
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“(Covington) was so bad that he had to see the doctor three times,” Sonnen, who also works for ESPN, said on his YouTube channel. “Twice he stopped the action and let it continue. The third time he said, ‘I can’t go on any longer.’
“I was going to stop the fight. I already grabbed a towel. When the doctor came a third time and I saw the blood – it wouldn’t stop. The blood was in my eyes and that’s the only thing that happened. You’re really looking.
“When we, as fans of the game, as tough guys, think that the doctor should have stopped, we are talking about no matter how bad the injury is from our point of view. , as long as it doesn’t affect your body, it doesn’t really matter.” If you’re going blind, it doesn’t matter if it’s a little or a lot. It is all the same if it is in his eye and out of sight. And it was in my eyes. I said, “Hand me that towel and I’ll stop.”
Covington (17-5) had a different perspective after his first fight in a year.
“Even[UFC president]Dana[White]came out and said, ‘If that was Las Vegas, you’d never have stopped me.'” I hit his toughest shots, but they were Didn’t upset me at all, so we’ll be back even stronger. ”
Buckley improved his MMA record to 21 wins and 6 losses.
Field Level Media contributed to this report.
