{"id":883392,"date":"2026-09-07T15:42:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T15:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883392\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T15:42:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T15:42:45","slug":"covington-maintains-door-open-on-ufc-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883392\/","title":{"rendered":"Covington Maintains Door Open On UFC Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former UFC welterweight<\/a> contender Colby Covington has left the door open for a return to mixed martial arts despite his current focus on wrestling.<\/p>\n

Covington, who hasn’t competed in MMA since his departure from the UFC roster, told reporters he doesn’t consider himself fully retired from the sport. The 37-year-old said the UFC wasn’t offering him the fights he wanted, including a spot on the White House card earlier this year, per BJPenn.com.<\/p>\n

What Covington Said About His MMA Future<\/p>\n

“I wasn’t getting any fights in the UFC,” Covington said, as reported by MMA Junkie. “They weren’t really offering me the fights that I want. I didn’t get on the White House card. I really wanted to be on the White House card; I would have done anything to be on that card and would have fought anybody.”<\/p>\n

The former interim welterweight<\/a> champion said his move to RAF \u2014 where he recently defeated a lightweight<\/a> contender \u2014 allowed him to return to his first passion. He stressed that his current wrestling run doesn’t mean his fighting career is finished.<\/p>\n

Covington added that he’s still in his prime and taking care of his body, suggesting a temporary break rather than permanent retirement. He pointed to his recent RAF success as evidence he remains competitive at the highest level.<\/p>\n

No timeline has been mentioned for any potential octagon return. Covington last fought in the UFC welterweight division before transitioning full-time to wrestling competition.<\/p>\n

Reported via:<\/p>\n

BJPenn<\/a> \u2014 Colby Covington reveals that he could make a future return to mixed martial arts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington has left the door open for a return to mixed martial arts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-883392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}