Colby Covington retires from the UFC

It was announced a couple  of weeks ago that Colby Covington had been removed from the UFC rankings and the active roster page and the promotion eventually announced that he had officially retired.  Colby Covington has not fought since a bout in December of 2024 where he suffered the first back-to-back losses of his 22 fight professional career. Covington has taken a more critical stance towards the UFC and fighter pay in recent years and made it known he was disappointed about not being included on the White House UFC fight card.

Covington recently appeared on the Ariel Helwani show and gave his first comments since his UFC retirement.  Speaking with Ariel he said he recently had a good meeting with UFC head honcho Hunter Campbell last month while they were both in Miami.  Covington went on to explain that the UFC was okay with him stepping away from the octagon to focus on his Real American Freestyle wrestling career.  “I had a good meeting with Hunter and we just talked about the future and we talked about everything that’s been done and all the business we’ve done.” He went on to say, “It was a productive meeting and I just said I’m thankful for everything the UFC has allowed me to age able to do in my life.”

Covington went on to say that “This was the proverbial red tape that needed to be done to be able to clear up the biggest and best matches in RAF, so there’s no limitations to who I can wrestle..It was just a formality.” The RFA has a considerable amount of UFC talent with Colby Covington now retired it frees him to compete against other names such as Khamzat Chimaev, Arman Tsarukyan, Kamaru Usman, or even Bo Nickel.

Covington went on to say that he is still under contract with the UFC even in retirement and that means he is not allowed to go compete in Mixed Martial Arts for any other organizations.  Having already done two RAF matches, Covington makes his return when Real American Freestyle debuts this weekend in Arlington Texas against Chris Weidman.