Benched! Potentially No Chaos ‘Until March’

Colby Covington has been uncharacteristically quiet after his last Octagon appearance in March 2022 at UFC 272.

Hoping to put to rest a heated rivalry with former best friend, Jorge Masvidal, Covington battled it out with “Gamebred” in their five round main event en route to a dominant unanimous decision victory (watch highlights). However, that wasn’t the end of the saga between the pair of two-time Welterweight title challengers.

Later that same month, Masvidal allegedly assaulted Covington, sucker punching him outside Miami, Florida’s Papi Steakhouse. Covington has since claimed to have suffered brain damage, broken a tooth, and had his Rolex watch damaged. According to another top Welterweight with hopes of facing “Chaos” next, Gilbert Burns, has been hearing that the severity of Covington’s injuries is much worse.

“That would be a dream,” Burns told The AllStar regarding a Covington match up. “The rumors [were] that he was very bad. He had a neck injury, the nerves were very bad — he lost a little bit of movement in his neck. He kinda broke his jaw again, he had surgery and the surgery didn’t go well. He’s still doing the PT (physical therapy), he’s not training. If everything goes okay, he’s only back in March — that’s what I heard. I don’t know if it’s true, but I [heard] from guys that know him. I think it’s true because he’s been quiet — he hasn’t said anything. I think he’s out until March next year.”

Aside from Covington, Burns has recently set his sights on the man on the other side of the equation, Masvidal. Both appear down to fight and need to rebound off tough losses, so it’s just a matter of ironing out details going forwards.

“Colby is always an option, you know,” Burns said. “If you’re asking me what’s the best option for me, I’d say Masvisdal in December or January, and Colby next after that.”