He said a few days ago that's he's still got some injuries to heal.
https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/4/...y-covington-claiming-be-stripped-of-his-title
His corner also said that his foot hurt after the fight. It's hard to go five rounds with no damage.
https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/3/...t-what-justifies-him-really-to-jump-the-queue
I'm fine with him only fighting twice in 2023 and has a better chance of performing against his best against whoever it is, instead of trying to fight three times.
"Supposed"
Many examples of anyone consistently defending their belt 3 times a year in the modern era? And I mean more than 1 guy doing it 1 year.
I had a look and quite a few did try to defend 3+ times in 12 months after fighting a 4+ rounder from 2009-16 (eg Benson, DJ, GSP, Jones, Cain, Penn, Joanna, Edgar, Aldo, Cruz, Barão, Shevchenko). More recently Tyron, Max, Usman, Volk (twice back to back) and Adesanya (thrice back to back) have done it. Not like it's unheard of and several (DJ, Tyron, Izzy, Usman, Volk, Max, Cruz, Shevchenko, Joanna) are since USADA being introduced in 2015, if that's what the "modern era" is supposed to mean.
There are 23 fighters who've been champ 2009 or later and achieved 3+ consecutive title defences - eleven have fought 3 defences within 12 months with the first one being a 4+ rounder, so about 50% - maybe a lower percentage if you count those who only achieved 1-2 title defences, but are those like Cruz who never achieved 3 defences in a row it but did attempt to fight three in a year after a 4-rounder. Not rare at all, and I'm only counting those who started it off with 4+ rounders.