Media Big John McCarthy says Covington never had championship level

markg171 said:
Beating Woodley and Masvidal to earn respective title shots >>>>>>>>> beating Sam Stout and Diego Nunes in divisional debuts.

Lay off the Haterade.
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Lol no. Beating a single 0-2 washed fighter is not better. Nunes was a top contender at the time. Stout was on a 9 fight winning streak. Lay off the Conor noob vibes.
 
Portland8242 said:
The 3rd or 4th best guy in the division isn't what I consider "championship" material. Gaethje is another guy who I like but he doesn't have championship level ability, and it's gonna unfortunately get proven again when he steps in there against Islam, and he's got a far better resume than Colby.
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Ah, I see. We just have different definitions of "Championship Material." I think the 3rd or 4th, or even 10th best guys in a division can be championship material, depending on how deep division is (Of course there are very shallow divisions, such as the women's 125, where I feel the majority of the entire Top 10 aren't "championship material" as well).

For me, "championship material" is someone who I can see realistically fighting for and potentially winning a UFC Title. And I see Covington as one of those guys.

Even though I agree that Gaethje (or really anyone else at 155) doesn't really have much of a chance against Makhachev, that doesn't automatically mean he isn't "championship material" in my eyes. If that were the case, then "championship material" would be dependent on matchups with the current champion.

For example, at 145, Volkanovski has shown that Holloway has nothing for him and that any other bouts between them would go Volkanovski's way. But to me that doesn't mean Holloway isn't "championship material". He was just holding a title prior to Volkanovski's reign.
 
svmr_db said:
Not a fan of Colby these days but you can definitely claim he was championship level briefly given how competitive his fights with Usman were.
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He got dropped and badly hurt in both of those fights, and stopped in the first one.

So currently his claim to fame is loosing two fights with Usman, who took virtually no damage and beat him up both times.

Colby hasn't fought virtually ANY of his peers. He's spent most of the last 5 years fighting older guys coming off a loss or multiple losses, and has zero wins over any ranked welterweights. To find him a win over ANY current welterweight, you go back to 2016 with Barberena.

I think how you get to the two title shots you lost matters - he likely couldn't have earned them by fighting other ranked/prime fighters.
 
blaseblase said:
Lol no. Beating a single 0-2 washed fighter is not better. Nunes was a top contender at the time. Stout was on a 9 fight winning streak. Lay off the Conor noob vibes.
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Sam Stout made his UFC debut the fight before Florian.

Stop embarrassing yourself.
 
Colby Covington was never championship level fighter a tier or two below that still an elite fighter at WW during his prime.
 
It’s hard to argue. He beat a few highly ranked guys right at the moment they fell off. Maia may have lost to him in, or closer to his prime. Robbie woulda smoked him. I think a year or so earlier TWood does too. Other than that there’s only really Jorge. Who he also fought at the tail end.

But the wins over TWood, Maia and Robbie stand up with regards to his 1st title shot. At least on paper. He got very fortunate timing wise, but did beat them. He definitely isn’t anywhere near championship level now. And hasn’t been since the 1 Usman fight. But I’ll give him that he deserved that 1st shot.
 
Unheralded Truth said:


"Did you see who he called out?"

I'm not saying Colby Covington is not a good athlete, he is. He's good. He just can't reach that level. Kenny Florian was a good fighter, a talented guy and Kenny Florian had what I believe, I wanna say
three titleshots and lost. He couldn't get it done in any of those. That doesn't mean he's not a good fighter, it can happen where you just can't reach that pinnacle. You know? And there's gonna be
people out there saying "well, Colby won the interim". Nope, interim ain't crap. It's just not the same, cause there was somebody else that was actually better, sitting there with the title. It just says
that you're not that guy, to get to that level.

Did you see who he called out? Wonderboy! He's not calling out Shavkat (laughing). Again, who is it that he has fought to get his wins? They’ve been guys at 38, 39, 40; that’s the whole point.
You know? When he fought a 32-year-old, who was fast, look at what happens! Speed kills.
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Florian only had 2 title shots.
 
Mammothman said:
I agree with John, Colby matched very well with Usman but other than that he never beat a real contender to prove how elite he truly was, other than a smaller and old RDA his other opponents were clearly washed up.
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Who did usman beat to prove how he was really elite?

Colby? because otherwise they share a similar record. Unless his entire legacy hinges on beating burns.
 
Steve Fox said:
He isn't wrong about Colby though..
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Lol yes he is wrong...

Colby took rounds off the Champ.
He also dominated former champs Tyron Woodley and Robbie Lawler.
He set a record against Robbie too btw for most strikes or something....


In addition to all of that he actually won an Interim Belt by beating Dos Anjos. Woodley was champ when this happened but was getting surgery rapping acting and singing and falling in an outta love with you.... Since he was interim champ, Colby should have gotten the shot, and theoretically Colby would have beaten woodley and been champ. HE had the Interim belt but they took it away snd gave the shot to Till, who didn't land a punch. Then they gave teh shot to Usman over Colby...

To say Colby was never championship level is clearly wrong. Ridiculous thing to say lol
 
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Colby is one of the few guys you can confidently point to his record and say his only wins were guys on there way out and he lost every fight against a good fighter.

Lawler
Woodley
Maia

These were literally ALL dudes on there way out and old by that point. This isn’t revisionist history either, this was true at the time the fights were made as well.
 
Obviously, he goes in on him a little, but he's not wrong.

Colby never got to stand on top, that's it.
Is Colby a super tough matchup for most guys? For sure, and maybe he could get it done.

but as of right now, he can't ever say he was undisputed champ. Sure, he can tell people he was "a UFC Champion" but that comes with a big ol' *.
 
Colby was absolutely championship level, but sabotaged his career with his inactivity during his peak
 
MillingMeSoftly said:
Lol yes he is wrong...

Colby took rounds off the Champ.
He also dominated former champs Tyron Woodley and Robbie Lawler.
He set a record against Robbie too btw for most strikes or something....


In addition to all of that he actually won an Interim Belt by beating Dos Anjos. Woodley was champ when this happened but was getting surgery rapping acting and singing and falling in an outta love with you.... Since he was interim champ, Colby should have gotten the shot, and theoretically Colby would have beaten woodley and been champ. HE had the Interim belt but they took it away snd gave the shot to Till, who didn't land a punch. Then they gave teh shot to Usman over Colby...

To say Colby was never championship level is clearly wrong. Ridiculous thing to say lol
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He lost 3 times versus champs. Got stopped versus Usman in the first fight.

Nah.
 
If cobly is/was champion material, so are a bunch of other ww's.
Funny how he was just in a championship fight and looked FAR from champ material.
 
What i've gathered so far in this thread is that people really need to learn what championship level means. No Colby doesn't fit the bill.
 
13Seconds said:
What i've gathered so far in this thread is that people really need to learn what championship level means. No Colby doesn't fit the bill.
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That's going to vary a lot. Some divisions have a lot more depth and parity than others, also the individual match ups matter a lot. Look at Izzy vs Strickland, Sean has arguably the best style of anyone at MW to beat him but I don't think Strickland is the best overall MW. I think Colby was championship level but it's been at least 3 years since he was, and I don't like Colby's gimmick or fighting style but if he were to have fought Woodley in 2019 he would have beaten him very similar to how Usman did IMO.
 
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