Colby Covington says he hasn’t walked away from MMA, but he isn’t coming back to the UFC for just anybody. Speaking with MMA Junkie, the former interim welterweight champion said a return depends on landing a marquee opponent, the kind of matchup that adds to what he’s already built.
“Without a question, if it’s a big name and it’s a big fight that gets me up early in the morning, then I’m going to do it,” Covington said.
The 38-year-old was blunt about the alternative. Fighting regular or up-and-coming opponents pays at a lower tier on his contract, he explained, and coming back to face a random name “does nothing for me.” He also told the outlet he’s made smart investments and is “set for life,” so a paycheck alone won’t pull him back into a UFC camp. What he wants, he said, is a fight that can “get me excited to get up at 6 a.m. in the morning and do some hard training.”
He didn’t have a specific opponent locked in, but he floated two of the biggest characters the sport has produced. “Obviously, they’re probably not going to give me a guy like Conor (McGregor), but that would be great,” he said, before adding Nate Diaz to the wish list as someone who has been around the game as long as he has.
“Big fights only,” Covington said. “Who knows, we’ll see what happens, but the door is never closed.”
Where Covington stands
Covington is 17-5 in MMA and 12-5 inside the UFC. He hasn’t fought in the Octagon since a stoppage loss to Joaquin Buckley in December 2024, which was the last image UFC fans got of him.
Since then he’s found a second home with Real American Freestyle, where he won the cruiserweight crossover title. He pointed to his win there over Arman Tsarukyan as proof he’s still dangerous, saying he “smashed” a man he described as eight years younger and in his prime. Covington said he believes he could do the same thing in the UFC, but only against the right name.
His next assignment is a serious one. Covington defends the RAF cruiserweight crossover title against Khamzat Chimaev in the Nov. 14 main event at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, streaming on FOX Nation.
Quick take
I get the logic. Covington’s last UFC appearance ended in a stoppage, he’s 38, and he’s openly said he doesn’t need the money, so there’s zero reason for him to sign up for a three-round grind against some hungry ranked welterweight who’d love to use his name as a ladder. But McGregor and Diaz are wish-list names, and he basically admitted the McGregor one isn’t happening. If the UFC calls with anything short of that, I’d bet he stays put at RAF. And frankly, the Chimaev fight on Nov. 14 will tell us more about Covington’s leverage than anything he said to MMA Junkie this week. Beat Khamzat in Abu Dhabi and the “big fights only” demand starts to sound a lot more reasonable.
