Colby Covington told Islam Makhachev to retire. Immediately. Pack the gloves, cancel the camp, go home. That’s the headline part, and it’s classic Colby, a guy who has never seen a microphone he didn’t want to set on fire. The headline part is also the weakest part of what he said. Tucked behind the hot take was a genuinely sharp read on what Makhachev is actually doing, and that read deserves more attention than the retire-now bit.
Here’s the setup. Makhachev, the UFC welterweight champion, recently said he doesn’t have a lot of time left in MMA. He framed his next title defense, slated for next year against whoever wins the interim welterweight title fight between Carlos Prates and Michael Morales in the UFC 336 co-main event, as one of his last fights. A champion openly talking about the exit while he still holds the belt is going to draw a reaction, and Covington, speaking to Submission Radio, supplied one. The clip made the rounds on X on Nov. 2 via Red Corner MMA.
“He might not even ever fight again. When you say a comment like that and you’re half-foot out, half-foot in, you probably should just leave now. You shouldn’t come back to the Octagon,” Covington said.
The Retire-Now Take Is Fun and Mostly Wrong
I get the instinct. Nobody wants a champion who’s mentally booking flights home before the walkout music starts. Fighting is a sport where hesitation gets you separated from consciousness, and a guy with one foot out the door is a fair thing to worry about.
But a fighter putting an end date on his career is a long way from ducking. Heavy’s write-up of the story called Makhachev one of the greatest fighters on the planet and pointed out he has accomplished almost everything there is to do in the sport. If you’ve climbed the whole mountain, telling people you plan to come down soon is honest. I’d take a champion who tells me where he stands over one who sits on the belt for two years, fights once, and lets the division rot while his team says “we’re evaluating options.” Telling Makhachev to vacate today because he was candid about tomorrow punishes the candor.
The Money Read Is Where Colby Earns His Check
Then Covington pivoted, and this is the part I want framed.
“Honestly, that’s probably a negotiation tactic, I’ll be honest. Maybe that’s what he’s publicly negotiating with the UFC, like, ‘Hey, the next one’s going to be the last, retirement. But if you don’t give me enough money, I’ll just retire early,’” Covington said.
That tracks with the timeline. According to Heavy, Makhachev didn’t want to fight Prates at UFC 336 in January. So instead of the champion taking on the top contender, the UFC built an interim title fight between Prates and Morales to keep the division moving. Then Makhachev comes out and says his remaining fights are numbered. If you’re sitting across the table from the UFC, that’s leverage, plain and simple. Every fight you have left gets more expensive when the other side believes there aren’t many of them.
And honestly? Good. This is a promotion that has spent years treating fans like ATMs with pay-per-view prices that keep climbing. If a champion wants to squeeze the company the way the company squeezes everybody else, I’m not clutching my pearls. Scarcity sells sneakers, concert tickets, and apparently title fights. A farewell tour always moves more merch than a residency.
Where It Gets Ugly for Prates and Morales
The real victims of this standoff, if it is one, are the two guys fighting for the interim belt. Prates and Morales are about to bleed for a title that, by design, exists because the actual champion wasn’t ready to fight in January. The winner gets a shot at Makhachev next year, assuming the money gets sorted. If Covington is right and the talks go sideways, the winner could end up holding a placeholder belt for a champion who never shows up. That’s the scenario Colby was hinting at with “he might not even ever fight again,” and it’s the one scenario where his retire-now advice actually makes sense. If Makhachev isn’t fighting again, the division deserves to know before it builds a whole card around his return.
There’s also something very funny about a former UFC fighter telling the reigning welterweight champion to hang it up. Colby knows exactly what he’s doing here. He’s the best heel of his generation, and a heel’s job is to poke the sleeping bear until the bear gets annoyed enough to say something interesting back. I hope Makhachev bites.
My verdict: ignore the first half of the Covington clip, tattoo the second half on the UFC matchmaking whiteboard. Makhachev doesn’t need to retire now. He needs to sign the deal, fight the Prates vs. Morales winner, and then go wherever he wants. The first domino falls at UFC 336 in January, when Prates and Morales settle who gets to find out whether the champ is really coming back.
