After his recent defeat to Leon Edwards at UFC 296, Colby Covington immediately made a callout directed toward 40-year-old Stephen Thompson. Nonetheless, this is not surprising for retired UFC referee John McCarthy, who believes that choosing young, up-and-coming opponents could lead Covington to another loss.
Covington failed to snatch the welterweight title for the third time after Edwards managed to win via unanimous decision in the bout. “Chaos” blamed “little ring rust” for his defeat, but many believe this would be the last time he would get his title shot. Despite this, Covington boldly called out Thompson to be his next opponent after the fight.
The choice is somewhat bizarre since “Wonderboy” lost to Shavkat Rakhmonov in the same event. Yet, Covington suggested that the reason for the callout was to settle a grudge, saying the fighter “has been talking a lot of s***” about him.
McCarthy is not buying it.
For the retired referee, Covington’s decision to pick a much older fighter is to secure a win. This is unsurprising as this has always been one of the biggest issues revolving around Covington, who lacks younger opponents in his record. McCarthy then pointed out the result of Covington’s UFC 296 performance, where he faced a younger opponent in Edwards.
“You just look and you go… you’re not that guy to get to that level,” McCarthy said in a recent episode of the Weighing In podcast. “Did you see who he called out? ‘Wonderboy.’ … Again, who is it that he has fought to get his wins? They’ve been guys (who are) 38, 39, 40; that’s the whole point. When he fought a 32-year-old, who was fast, look what happened! Speed kills.”
McCarthy also addressed possible sentiments of Covington’s fans, who might negate his words with the fighter’s achievement as the former interim welterweight champ. While McCarthy acknowledged it, he noted that it is different from the actual title.
“He (Covington) just can’t reach that level,” McCarthy said. “It can happen where you just can’t reach that pinnacle. There’s gonna people out there saying, ‘Well, Colby won the interim.’ No, interim ain’t crap. It’s just not the same because there was someone else that was actually better, sitting there with the title.”
