Teddy Atlas, legendary boxing trainer and International Boxing Hall of Famer was thoroughly impressed by Colby Covington’s striking performance this weekend. Speaking to ESPN, Atlas had nothing but praise for how well-rounded “Chaos” was going into the cage at UFC 272.
Colby delivered an emphatic unanimous decision win over his longtime enemy Jorge Masvidal. Using a high-pressure wrestling game alternating with precise strikes, Covington dominated “Gamebred” for each of the five rounds.
Boxing Legend Teddy Atlas Praises Colby’s Striking
“Listen, you guys are the experts and I bow to you guys in that way, but even I knew that the most rounded fighter here, the better all-around fighter was Covington.
There’s a reason why [he] was over a 3-to-1 favorite. That was the reason. He was the more dimensional guy. For the underdog to win, for Masvidal to win, he had to own the geography on the outside.
He had to set traps and do really, really consistent, almost perfect with his striking. And he had to use — which he did — use his defense from the takedowns, survive! Have that survivability with the takedowns and he did that too.
The thing that I think in my humble opinion is that the big difference [was] how good Covington was in the striking. To me that was the difference. He held his own and even won, except that one spot where he got hurt, even won in the striking.
To me that was the biggest difference because that took some of the mental part, the hope of the underdog away because that was his hope, that was his confidence. That was his chance to win striking and to land right hands against a southpaw who has been hit with right hands, who has been hurt with right hands.
That was his chance. When that was taken away from him, to Chael’s point, defensive, survival. That was the big difference.”
Atlas went on to discuss Covington’s fight IQ, an under-acknowledged aspect of the wrestler’s game. “He’s a better striker than we give him credit for.
That’s the basic answer. He’s better than we gave him credit for and his jab was really good. Masvidal’s the taller guy, the longer guy, he was supposed to control that range, that jab, but the shorter guy did.
He used the jab, he put punches together, and he was creative with the uppercut, with different punches he threw. He showed me the repertoire that, quite frankly, I didn’t know he had.
One other thing that I think was an intangible, that I think was very clever, maybe brilliant on Covington’s part: he switched from southpaw to orthodox.
That took away the right hands. Just in sports. I don’t know if anybody noticed that but just that little subtle thing of changing from southpaw to orthodox. Again, he’s a better striker, a more educated striker than we gave him credit for.”
Is Colby Covington a better striker than anyone guessed? Let us know in the comments.
