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411 Fact or Fiction MMA: Did Colby Covington Go Too Far at UFC Fight Night 119?

November 1, 2017 | Posted by Lorenzo Vasquez

Welcome back to another edition of 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! I’m your host, Lorenzo Vasquez III, and it is my pleasure to bring you the lowdown on what is fact and what is fiction in this biosphere we call professional mixed martial arts. Thank you, for your comments and votes last week, it is appreciated and encouraged. Last week, the hard-hitting Mark Radulich locked horns with the savage, the last rider, Robert Winfree. They went toe-to-toe over Conor McGregor’s lack of better words, Darren Till running over “The Cowboy,” and Edson Barboza’s next opponent. Mark hit Robert with punishing rights and lefts. He dragged Robert into deep water. Robert, however, brought some thunder of his own as he fought fire with fire and gladly followed Mark into deep water. At the end of the night, the bout was declared a draw. Congratulations, Mark and Robert, and thank you for your efforts and contribution.

This week, Jeffrey Harris returns to action to answer the challenge levied by Alex Rella. Look for this to be a hard-hitting battle as both men look to sleep the other as they traverse subjects like Colby Covington’s controversial comments, the women’s bantamweight division drying out, who Derek Brunson should fight next, and much more! Grab some grub and get comfortable because it’s time for another round of, 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! Let’s get things going…

TALE OF THE TAPE
RED CORNER
Jeffrey “The Vile One” Harris
Contributor, Various 411 Zones
2-7-4

VS

BLUE CORNER
Alex “Little Mac” Rella
Contributor, 411 MMA Zone
5-7-0


In his victory over Demian Maia, Colby Covington proved, on a skill and technical level, he is not ready to take the belt away from Tyron Woodley.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION I don’t care what anyone says. Colby Covington put in an impressive performance against Demian Maia. He broke Maia’s stamina and gas tank and came out on top. He neutralized Maia’s grappling and stuffed all his takedowns as well. Not many probably thought Woodley could take the belt away from Robbie Lawler, but he did. Covington probably still needs a fight or two to get there. The winner of Robbie Lawler vs. Jorge Masvidal likely gets the next title shot anyway. Covington has great wrestling and grappling skills, and with that alone, I think he at least could make it a competitive fight with Tyron Woodley.

Alex Rella: FICTION I think this depends entirely on which Tyron Woodley shows up to fight. Woodley can be a straight killer up in the way he’s knocked out guys like Robbie Lawler and Josh Koscheck. Or Woodley fights very cautious and tentative like he did in his last two fights against Maia and Thompson. An aggressive dangerous Woodley can knock Covington out in the first round, but I could also see Covington picking up a decision victory if Woodley fights like he did in his last two fights. If this fight happens, I just wouldn’t be surprised at all if Covington takes the belt. Both are NCAA All-American champs, so it’s anybody’s guess who is better there. Sure, Covington is a sloppy striker, but remember when Jake Shields outstruck Woodley for a split decision victory? Just saying, this fight could legitimately go either way.


Having said the above, Covington does not deserve a title shot with regards to his post-fight comments about Brazil and the Brazilians and should be disciplined.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION No. Chael Sonnen was never punished for making insulting comments about Brazil and its people. Conor McGregor, the UFC lightweight champion, was caught on camera referring to Andre Fili as a homophobic slur. No mention from the UFC brass over any type of punishment for that.

Alex Rella: FICTION I’ll break this down into two parts. I believe the choice for who gets a title shot depends on when they’re looking to book Woodley’s next fight. I think the winner of Robbie Lawler vs Rafael dos Anjos is more worthy of being the next number one contender, but that fight doesn’t happen until December and the champ hasn’t fought since July. So if they’re looking to book a welterweight title fight for December or January, Covington makes perfect sense. The guy is on a five-fight winning streak and just beat the last number one contender, he’s earned it.

I also do not think he should be disciplined for anything he said. Other fighters have said far worse things and gotten away with it. He didn’t curse or use any slurs, he just hurled some insults to play up his heel persona and it worked. The UFC would be hypocrites to discipline Covington.


Antonio Carlos Junior may be riding a nice four-fight win streak in the middleweight division, but he is nowhere near ready for likes of Chris Weidman.

Jeffrey Harris: FACT Sometimes these sort of matches happen, but I don’t see it right here. Right now, that seems unrealistic for Chris Weidman’s next fight. Antonio Carlos Junior is surging and on a good winning streak, but he still needs to work his way up. I think Weidman should be fighting someone like Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza next. One idea for Antonio Carlos Junior is someone like a Tim Boetsch or maybe Thiago Santos, who also won last Saturday night and is on a nice winning streak at middleweight.

Alex Rella: FACT Yea that fight makes no sense to me at all. Weidman went through a rough stretch, but he’s coming off a win and is still a top 5 middleweight. His next fight needs to be against either Luke Rockhold or Jacare Souza. If those two are fighting each other, Derek Brunson isn’t a bad fight either. Antonio Carlos Junior has looked very good lately, but he just isn’t ready for it. He’d be better off going up against lower ranked veterans such as Tim Boetsch, Sam Alvey, or Thiago Santos who also won this weekend. This would be a very premature match-up and even unfair to Antonio at this point in his career.


SWITCH!

With Julianna Pena taking a sabbatical due to pregnancy, Holly Holm possibly jumping up to featherweight to battle Cyborg for the strap, and Raquel Pennington breaking her leg in an ATV accident, the women’s bantamweight division is officially a dry pond without legitimate title challengers.

Alex Rella: FACT Unfortunately, this is the weakest the division has ever been. If you had to pick someone to challenge for the title in December, right now it would be either Ketlen Viera or Marion Reneau. All the previously mentioned contenders aren’t available and neither are any other former number one contenders. Sara McMann would have likely gotten the title shot but was recently upset by Viera. Nobody wants to see a third fight with Shevchenko so soon and she might be moving down to 125 lbs anyway. Cat Zingano barely fights anymore. The winner of Liz Carmouche and Alexis Davis would make for a solid number one contender, but they don’t fight until December themselves. Unless they just give one of those two vets the title shot, they just have to feed either Viera or Reneau to Nunes and just hope she scores a highlight reel knockout that will make people excited to see her fight more in the future. With the new weight classes and fighters being unavailable, women’s bantamweight is pretty bare.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION This is definitely a big setback, but it’s not that dry of a pond. Holly Holm might not stay at women’s featherweight. We’ll see how that goes. You still have Valentina Shevchenko there. Also, there’s the undefeated Ketlen Vieira, who just beat Sara McMann while she was on a nice winning streak, and Vieira is also undefeated. So there’s definitely some talent and prospects looking around. The division did get a little bit gutted because it lost both Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate in 2016. But I wouldn’t say it’s a dry pond. Cat Zingano, the last woman to beat Amanda Nunes, is still there. And just because Pennington has a broken leg doesn’t mean she won’t be able to heal and fight again within a year.


Zuffa undertaking the promotion of boxing would serve to distract the company from full-on MMA promotion through the UFC, thus, is a mistake and something the brass should stay away from.

Alex Rella: FICTION I don’t see any harm in this, but it depends on their scope and what they’re looking to accomplish. I see nothing wrong with them promoting one or two big boxing cards a year, or even a bunch of smaller local events. They’re a huge company that can hire more people from boxing to make this work, so not to distract them from their MMA focus. I would only see this as a huge mistake if they look to promote monthly Pay-Per-View boxing cards, but a couple shows won’t hurt.

Jeffrey Harris: FACT I would say right now, yes. The company as it is still needs to get a handle on the MMA promotional thing, and it needs to work on creating bigger and better buzz for its events before dipping a toe in the boxing realm.


Derek Brunson vs. Luke Rockhold just doesn’t make sense, at the moment, when Rockhold should be looking fight either Yoel Romero or Jacare Souza while Brunson should be looking to mix it up with some like Chris Weidman, the winner of Kelvin Gastelum vs. Anderson Silva, David Branch, or Uriah Hall.

Alex Rella: FACT Derek Brunson is on a nice roll and he looked awesome against Machida, but he isn’t ready for Rockhold, Romero, or Souza. Those fighters are near title contention and Brunson is still a win or two away from being on their level. Brunson is still a top 10 middleweight though, but all of the other fighters mentioned in the question make more sense for him at this point. Fights with Weidman, Gastelum, Branch, or even Hall would all be exciting and better suited for him right now.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION Derek Brunson is currently ranked No. 6 in the division, and he’s due for a big fight next. Luke Rockhold could be a good potential opponent for him, and it would be good for Luke Rockhold as well because he’d be fighting a guy with a strong record for the division, who is ranked solidly in the top 10, and he presents a good challenge with his dangerous knockout power. Brunson already fought Anderson Silva. That fight sucked. Even if he wants that rematch to get the win back, it’s just a bad idea to book that fight. I doubt Silva would be up for that rematch either.

I definitely like the idea of possibly Brunson vs. Chris Weidman, but Brunson vs. Rockhold might work as well depending on how this crazy title picture pans out. The fact of the matter is that Robert Whittaker is the interim champion. So he’s due the fight for the winner of Michael Bisping vs. GSP. That means guys like Weidman and Rockhold will likely have to keep busy. So something like Rockhold vs. Brunson might have to happen. So you could very well book that fight. You could book Weidman vs. Brunson. Or you could book Weidman vs. Jacare. Or even a rematch between Jacare and Rockhold, considering they had a very close decision in Strikeforce, and they were supposed to rematch at one point. But the fact of the matter is that Rockhold vs. Brunson does sort of make sense at the moment. And that is that if you see where the Jeffrey is coming from.


So who won? Did Jeffrey smash right through Alex? Did slip by the vile one?You’ve got until midnight eastern on Saturday to vote, so make sure you make your voice heard!


And that’s it for today but, as always, we’ll be back next week with another contest! And please, be sure to vote!

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