UFC dream fights vol.8: Colby Covington v Tyron Woodley

Las Vegas, April 13: Accusations of running and ducking would finally be answered if Colby Covington and Tyron Woodley were ever to settle the score inside the Octagon.

There is absolutely no love lost between former UFC welterweight champion Woodley and Covington, who have been on an ugly collision course for a number of years.

Woodley was slated to face Leon Edwards in London last month but the fight was cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Covington insisted he was ready to take on the bout at short notice, yet the UFC being indefinitely suspended means there is little chance on a match being signed off in the immediate future.

Still this is a showdown that would get fans talking, so in the eighth edition of our UFC dream fights series we broke down the profiles of Covington and Woodley.

WHY DO WE WANT TO SEE THIS FIGHT?

In a stacked welterweight division, Kamaru Usman is the man in possession of the belt and has defeated Woodley and Covington – ranked one and two by UFC behind the champion – in his previous two fights.

Which means, at this stage, the right thing to do would be fight each other. Covington is a man who fights with a chip on his shoulder, declaring prior to the Usman fight he would slap UFC president Dana White if he tried to wrap the belt around his waist over frustrations about how long he had to wait for a title fight.

The welterweight division is stacked with all-time greats. Georges St-Pierre - arguably the best ever was - champion for five years and eight months in his second run, and Woodley held the belt for almost three years. Facing and beating Covington would be a great way to cement his place as one of the best at 170lbs.

Crucially, there appears a real desire from both men to get this fight on. A series of provocative social-media messages whetted the appetite of fans, but this is a score that must be settled in the cage.

Just wanted you guys to know I'm in for #UFC249 I gave my management team executive permission to make it happen. Im training like a machine & ready to walk through someone! @uFC what's the word? Colby in or not? Are you guys going to pull the trigger on this its 2wks away?

— Tyron T-Wood Woodley (@TWooodley) April 4, 2020

GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS

Woodley ascended to the top of the welterweight division with a brutal knockout of Robbie Lawler in July 2016.

The American scored wins over Stephen Thompson, Demian Maia and Darren Till before dropping the belt to Usman a year ago.

Maia, Rafael dos Anjos and Lawler are among the notable names Covington has defeated in his UFC career.

The victory over Dos Anjos saw him briefly become the division's interim champion (and a bout with Woodley seemed guaranteed) but he was stripped of that status, with White saying he had been offered a fight that he turned down.

WHAT'S THEIR MMA RECORD (W-L-D)?

Covington: 15-2-0

Woodley: 19-4-1

TALE OF THE TAPE

Covington:

Age: 32

Height: 5'11" (180cm)

Weight: 170lbs (77kg)

Reach: 72"

Leg Reach: 41"

Woodley:

Age: 38

Height: 5'9" (175cm)

Weight: 170lbs (77kg)

Reach: 74"

Leg Reach: 42"

The offer still stands @ufc. I’ll go full Teddy Roosevelt & beat the breaks off @TWooodley live from The @WhiteHouse lawn! Save sports and make it free on @ESPN for the people! Im in such a giving mood I’ll even arrange a tour of the oval office for Tyrone, since Obama never did.

— Colby Covington (@ColbyCovMMA) March 30, 2020

WHAT THEY'VE SAID ABOUT A POTENTIAL FIGHT

"This fight is multiple years in the making. This fight is beyond personal. There is a serious beef between me and Tyron Woodley, and it needs to be settled. The only way it is going to be settled is, we're going to do it on Dana White's fight island, I'm going to end that b****. He's going to be dead and they can just throw his dead body to the sharks," Covington speaking to MMA Fighting this week, was pretty graphic when explaining his desire to fight Woodley.

"That's the fight I was supposed to get before Leon Edwards and they said he couldn't fight because of his jaw. The second they booked the fight between me and Leon, now all of a sudden he's healthy and can fight. He a b****, he all cap, he want attention. He's declined me four f****** times so I don't want to talk about Colby. He's a f****** b****. He's scared," Woodley has too been vocal about his feelings towards Covington.

FIGHT STATS IN UFC

Covington:

- Covington has landed with 739 of his 1981 attempted significant strikes, a success rate of 37 per cent.

- In terms of grappling, Covington has completed 58 of 112 takedowns (52 per cent success rate).

- He has successfully fended off 55 per cent of significant strikes and 78 per cent of takedown attempts against him.

- Of Covington's successful strikes, 80 per cent have come from a standing position.

Woodley:

- Woodley has landed 448 of his 939 significant strikes, a success rate of 48 per cent.

- He lands 2.64 significant strikes on average per minute and absorbs 3.95 per minute.

- In defense, Woodley has guarded against 57 per cent of significant strikes and an impressive 92 per cent of take downs.

- Woodley is varied in terms of significant strike by position. 48 per cent come by standing, 25 per cent by clinch and 27 per cent on the ground.