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Colby Covington’s time in the octagon has been rare.
Saturday night at Real American Freestyle on Fox Nation will mark Covington’s fourth fight in almost as many years. After defeating Jorge Masvidal on March 5, 2022, he lost consecutive fights on December 16, 2023 and December 14, 2024.
He had his most recent fight against Joaquin Buckley on a week’s notice after Ian Machado Garry was pulled to fight at UFC 310 against another opponent. At the time, Covington blamed the loss on his campaign for President Donald Trump, a sentiment he repeated to Brian Kilmeade on Friday.
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Colby Covington celebrates his victory over Robbie Lawler in their welterweight fight during a UFC Fight Night event at the Prudential Center on August 3, 2019 in Newark, NJ (Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
“Everybody knows I was on the campaign trail with Donald Trump. You know, I was out there, you know, trying to save America. You know? I was in New York. I was here, I was there. And then the UFC calls me on a week’s notice to take this fight,” Covington said. “So that doesn’t indicate the fighter that I am.
“I’m thrilled that Real American Freestyle has given me a comprehensive training camp. I’ve had 12 weeks to hone my skills in the art of freestyle wrestling. And I’m going to deliver the best performance of my career Saturday night only on Fox Nation.”
Colby Covington on stage during the UFC 296 press conference at MGM Grand Garden Arena on December 14, 2023, in Las Vegas. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
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Covington visited the White House shortly after a 2018 victory during Trump’s first presidency. He now hopes to return there on June 14 for the UFC event.
“Yeah, that’s the plan, you know, is to use these few Real American Freestyle matches as training camp and then hopefully get the White House card and fight on the South Lawn in June for Donald Trump,” Covington said.
Covington will face Luke Rockhold, who was the UFC middleweight champion from December 2015 until the following June. This is Rockhold’s first MMA fight since August 20, 2022.
Colby Covington attends UFC 286 at The O2 Arena on March 18, 2023 in London, England. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Covington won the UFC welterweight title in 2018, but lost it about a year and a half later. In two other championship fights he failed to win it back.
