"He's not the brightest bulb" - Michael Chandler shares brutally honest prediction for Colby Covington vs. Joaquin Buckley at UFC Tampa
Colby Covington has little chance against Joaquin Buckley, at least according to UFC lightweight star Michael Chandler. 'Chaos' takes on 'New Mansa' in the main event of UFC Tampa on Saturday and Chandler favors Buckley to emerge victorious with authority, no less.
'Iron' questioned Covington's intelligence, pointing out that the latter came up short in his welterweight title fight with Leon Edwards, then spent a year away from the sport only to return with just a month to prepare for Buckley. For this reason, and others, Chandler gave Lucky Block, as reported by BJPenn.com, his pick.
"I'd love to see Colby Covington get his block knocked off by Joaquin Buckley this weekend. I mean, what an interesting decision. You sit out for all those years, lose a title fight and all of a sudden you come back kind of on short notice against Joaquin Buckley. Colby's not the smartest guy, he's not the brightest bulb and we'll see it on Saturday night. I think Joaquin Buckley goes out there and I think he finishes Colby, I do. I think Colby doesn't have it anymore."
As a matter of fact, Chandler questioned whether Covington was ever at the level he was often advertised as being. When asked about potentially facing 'Chaos,' Chandler expressed some interest and said:
"Never say never when it comes to a fight with Colby. I've made it very clear. I don't like making 155, I love fights at 170 and to me, Colby is a 155'er who doesn't want to cut much weight."
Chandler is coming off a lopsided unanimous decision loss to Charles Oliveira at UFC 309, almost certainly bringing an end to any aspirations of him ever fighting for a lightweight title again. Welterweight, though, is a different world.
Colby Covington is no stranger to fighting lightweights
It is well-known that Colby Covington cuts little weight to fight at 170 pounds. He has made it known, at various points, that he's more than capable of fighting at lightweight, he simply doesn't want to cut the weight. Nevertheless, he has faced two prominent lightweights who moved to welterweight.
His last win was him outworking the first-ever 'BMF' champion, Jorge Masvidal, in the UFC 272 main event. Despite gaining more fame at welterweight, 'Gamebred' is a former lightweight, as was former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, who Covington defeated for interim welterweight gold.