3 reasons why the UFC need to make Woodley vs Covington happen in 2019
With 2018 almost over and 2019 on the horizon, MMA fans have already begun to look at the big fights that are likely due to take place early next year. One such fight is a grudge match that’s been building for some time – Tyron Woodley vs. Colby Covington, with Woodley’s UFC Welterweight title on the line.
The two probably should’ve fought in 2018 at some point as Covington, of course, won the Interim Welterweight title back in June, but due to some timing issues surrounding injuries to both men, Woodley instead ended up defending against Darren Till in September, and Covington was stripped.
With both men hoping to be healthy in early 2019 though, we should see this fight pretty soon. And hey, it should be pretty good, too. Here are 3 reasons why Woodley vs. Covington must happen in early 2019.
#1: It could be the new version of the Silva vs. Sonnen rivalry
Anderson Silva might be considered one of the UFC’s all-time biggest stars these days, but if you cast your mind back to early 2010, that certainly wasn’t the case. At that stage, Silva was already well on his way to becoming a legend inside the Octagon, but for some reason, he found it hard to make the fans care for his fights. That wasn’t helped by a pair of dull title defences against Thales Leites and Demian Maia either.
Enter Chael Sonnen. The future ‘American Gangster’ won a shot at Silva’s Middleweight crown by beating Nate Marquardt in February 2010 and then began to talk more trash than probably any other fighter in UFC history, taking shots at Silva’s fighting style, his culture, his training partners, and even his entire country of Brazil. He also made plenty of claims that he simply couldn’t back up and altogether, this turned him into the biggest villain in the sport.
Suddenly, everyone cared about Silva, largely because they wanted to see him kick Sonnen’s a**. And after an epic fight that saw Silva snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat with a 5th round triangle choke, the Brazilian was elevated from a champion who the fans didn’t really like to one of the UFC’s most popular stars – and from there he never looked back, really.
Sound familiar? In this case, we’ve got a highly successful champion in Woodley who, for whatever reason – perhaps linked to a couple of dull title defences – the fans simply don’t care too much for. And of course, in Covington, we’ve got a trash-talking villain who loves Donald Trump and is pretty much hated by the fans. It’s damn near identical to the Silva and Sonnen situation almost a decade earlier.
If Covington talks as much trash as he usually does leading into this fight – and there’s nothing to suggest he wouldn’t – then the fans won’t be able to help getting hooked. And most likely, for the first time in a while, they’ll be fully behind Woodley, too. Essentially, this fight could make both men into superstars just as Silva vs. Sonnen did. And that’s a good thing.