By FCF Staff

It remains to be seen what comes next for Colby Covington, following the welterweight’s latest defeat. But, Matt Brown believes Covington’s recent loss to Joaquin Buckley likely indicates his days at the top of the welterweight division are over.

Covington faced the surging Buckley in the main event of the UFC’s latest card in Tampa, and the fight was stopped by the cage side doctor in round three, on account of a large cut over his right eye. Since then, Covington has argued the bout shouldn’t have been stopped and that he was turning around the fight. Up until the bout was halted, Buckley had defended seven of Covington’s eight takedown attempts, and had outstruck him with significant strikes by a 75 to 37 margin.

During a recent episode of the “The Fighter vs. The Writer” podcast, Brown weighed in on the contest. While discussing Covington, the former welterweight contender argued that the controversial fighter’s best days are likely behind him (quotes via MMA Fighting.com).

“It’s hard to argue he’s really been elite for a while,” Brown said . “He hasn’t done anything elite for a long time. I’m not even sure if the door was already closed. I thought this was kind of his chance to show that he is still an elite welterweight, and he didn’t pass the test. I think that door might have already been closed is the only caveat to that. We’ll see.

“I guess the question is whether he retires. It’s not even whether he’s an elite welterweight anymore. I think that answer’s pretty clear. Is he going to stick around? Is he going to keep fighting? Because he’s kind of lived off of his shtick more so than his performances, right?”

The 36-year-old Covington (17-5) was coming off a unanimous decision loss to now former champ Leon Edwards heading into UFC Tampa, which marked the third defeat “Chaos” has incurred in title fights. Covington’s only win since 2020 came via a unanimous decision victory over Jorge Masvidal in 2023. His other defeat since that time was against former champ, Kamaru Usman, in 2021.

Saturday’s loss dropped Covington three spots in the UFC’s welterweight rankings to the #9 position.