Stephen Thompson doesn’t see a clear path to victory for Colby Covington. The upcoming welterweight title challenge against Leon Edwards seems to be a tough one for Covington.
Covington, with a record of 17-3, is set to headline UFC 296. The event is scheduled for Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Thompson, on the other hand, has a record of 17-6. He recently shared his thoughts on why he believes “Rocky” (21-3) will retain his title against Covington.
This fight is Covington’s third and possibly last chance to become the undisputed champion. He fell short against former ruler Kamaru Usman twice. Once via technical knockout in 2019 and then a unanimous decision in 2021.
Meanwhile, Edwards managed to dethrone Usman with a last-minute comeback upset in August 2022. He then defended his title convincingly via a decision in a rematch this past March.
Thompson has analyzed both fighters’ performances against Usman. He believes Edwards will have a size advantage over Covington. He noted that while “Chaos” struggled to wrestle Usman on both occasions, Edwards took “The Nigerian Nightmare” down in the first outing and stuffed his grappling game in the rematch.
Covington’s best skillset is arguably his relentless pace. However, “Wonderboy” believes it could be dangerous against someone like Edwards, who has proven knockout power for 25 minutes.
“I like Leon. Colby Covington, we saw what happened with Colby Covington and Usman. Of course, Colby Covington is not coming off of a severe knockout from this guy, but if you look back at the fight, I feel like Leon Edwards is the bigger welterweight,” The 40-year-old said on The MMA Hour.
Thompson also believes the fight will stay standing. He noted that even Usman couldn’t hold Edwards down. He thinks Leon is definitely the better striker.
Thompson is also set to appear on the UFC 296 card. He will be up against Kazakh standout Shavkat Rakhmonov (17-0), who has finished all of his 17 career outings so far. Thompson is coming off a TKO win over Kevin Holland last December, that saw him bounce back from consecutive decision losses against ace grapplers Gilbert Burns and Belal Muhammad.