Photo: A look at Colby Covington's broken jaw X-ray

The supposed X-ray of Colby Covington's broken jaw [Photo credit: sportsmanor.com]

It was widely reported that Kamaru Usman broke Colby Covington's jaw during their UFC 245 main event clash in 2019. Soon after the fight, an X-ray of what many believed to be Covington's broken jaw made the rounds on social media.

It’s beyond me how Colby Covington managed to stay conscious, keep walking forward and stand and bang with a jaw like this. https://t.co/SOvuy0hPb4

Colby Covington's broken jaw following the match with the Kamaru Usman. Covington is medically suspended for 6 months. https://t.co/8fUoCO5eik

However, Covington has since disputed the legitimacy of the X-rays. In an interview with ESPN's Brett Okamoto last month, Covington claimed that the supposed photos of his broken jaw were doctored. The UFC welterweight title challenger said:

"It was one of the worst photoshops, let me say, in the history of this sport. Someone went and took an image of Google, they put my name on [the X-ray] photo Colby Covington and first off, if you ever read an x-ray film, it’ll never read your name straight across. It’ll look backwards. And they photoshopped the image, and the front tooth had a cap on it, do I have caps on my front teeth? I don’t think so. It was just a bad photoshop. So nothing was broken, the only thing that was broken was (Kamaru Usman's) pride that night."

Colby Covington says his broken jaw X-ray was fake news:

However, the conversation regarding Covington's injury was sparked by 'Chaos' himself. Moments before round four, Covington was heard telling his cornermen, "I think I broke my jaw."

The injury is believed to have occurred after Usman connected with a huge right hand in the third round. Covington persevered until round five but was ultimately stopped with under a minute remaining in the the fifth.

Watch Colby Covington tell his cornermen about his 'broken jaw':

Colby Covington reflects upon his loss to Kamaru Usman

Colby Covington believes he made a "tactical error" by allowing Kamaru Usman to get too comfortable with his stand-up. In an interview with ESPN, Covington admitted that he still would have lost even if he went the distance but claimed:

"It's not fair because if that fight – if they don't call that fake stoppage – that fight gets run back right away. It goes to the judges' scorecards and we find out what they have to say. One judge had me up 3-to-1 [going into the fifth]. One had it 2-to-2. [A third had Usman up 3-to-1]. So, he gets the win, but it's a split decision, and we're running it back right away."