Colby Covington on Monday decried the fact that his UFC bout against Joaquin Buckley on Saturday in Tampa, Florida, was stopped in the third round due to excessive bleeding from a cut above his right eye.
“I was just getting warmed up in that fight,” Covington said on his YouTube channel. “I think it was tied up 1-1, and I was starting to wear on him. I could see him breathing out of his mouth. I was starting to catch him with more shots, so it’s unfortunate that they stopped it.”
However, UFC legend Chael Sonnen, who was in Covington’s corner during the fight, revealed that he nearly threw in the towel to end the contest before the doctor stepped in.
“[Covington was] busted open so bad that the doctor has to look at it three times,” Sonnen, who also works for ESPN, said on his YouTube channel. “Twice, he stops the action to let it keep going. The third time, he goes, ‘We can’t keep going anymore.’
“I was going to stop that fight. I already grabbed the towel. When the doctor came in for the third time, and I’m watching that blood — it’s not stopping. It is going into the eye, and that’s the only thing you’re really looking for.
“When we as fight fans, we as tough guys, think the doctor should’ve stopped it — we’re talking about it doesn’t really matter how bad the cut is from our perspective, as long as it’s not going in the eye. If it’s blinding the guy, it doesn’t matter if it’s a little or a lot. If it’s in his eye and he can no longer see out of that eye, it’s the exact same thing. … This was bad, and it was in the eye. I said, ‘Hand me that towel, I’m stopping this.'”
Covington (17-5) had a different perspective following his first fight in a year.
“Even [UFC president] Dana [White] came out and said, ‘If that was in Vegas, that would have never been stopped.’ I took his hardest shots, and they were nothing. They didn’t faze me at all. I was walking right down, so we’ll come back stronger.”
Buckley improved his MMA record to 21-6.
Field Level Media contributed to this report.