Covington on Sonnen’s towel-throwing admission: ‘Chael cares about me’

Colby Covington has always built up an alternate story around losses he’s taken in the UFC, but the reality of his latest loss to Joaquin Buckley is proving hard to dismiss.

Buckley battered Covington for three rounds (highlights here), splitting “Chaos” open above the eye so badly the ringside physician waved off the match, worried Colby was about to lose his eyelid. Colby has since said he believes he was taking over the fight and would have won in the championship rounds. But his corner Chael Sonnen has admitted he was moments away from throwing in the towel as the fight devolved into a literal bloodbath.

“I was going to stop that fight, I already grabbed the towel,” Sonnen revealed on his YouTube channel. “When the doctor came in for the third time and I’m watching that blood, it’s not stopping. It’s going into the eye … If it’s blinding the guy, it doesn’t matter if it’s a little or a lot, it’s the exact same thing. I said ‘Hand me that towel, I’m stopping this.’”

During a recent Twitch stream, Colby discussed Chael’s comments.

“Chael cares about me. He’s a real one,” Covington said. “If he was throwing it in, it’s because he knows that I couldn’t see. He knows that where the cut was at, it was bleeding into my right eye and I couldn’t see. I was seeing three of four different people.”

“So that guy [Buckley] couldn’t do nothing to me, not even seeing anything, seeing blurry, coming off the couch. Look at how far my back was against the wall. But I did it for the company, like I said, guys, so don’t hear me complaining, I don’t want sympathy. But I did that for the company.”

“He knew that I couldn’t see,” Covington concluded. “So if he’s going to do it, it’s because he cares about me and he knows that I couldn’t see and that was going to be tough to overcome. I thought I was coming on stronger, and I feel like they were going to have to throw in the towel for Buckley by the end of round five. So it sucks, it’s unfortunate.”

That’s Covington’s other much-repeated excuse: he came off the couch to fight Buckley. He wasn’t in camp, he wasn’t training … hell, it’s questionable as to whether he’s even welcome to train anywhere right now. In that context, having Hulk Hogan and Chael Sonnen as your team gets slightly less cool.

It all makes us wonder how seriously Covington is taking his actual MMA career these days. Not the personality bit, but the actual athletic side. What is he doing ‘getting off the couch’ at this point, 12 months after a title loss to Leon Edwards? Playing online casino games on Twitch. Not preparing for the next opportunity, in a sport where anything can (and did) happen. And then blaming the loss on that lack of preparation!

You lost because you didn’t train? Wow, shocking. Good excuse, man.