Joaquin Buckley put an absolute beating on Colby Covington, forcing the cageside doctor to step in and produce a cease to the bout late within the third spherical.
Within the opening spherical of their UFC Tampa headliner, ‘New Mansa’ managed to stuff each considered one of Covington’s feeble takedown makes an attempt and caught the three-time title challengers with a nasty shot that opened up a minimize simply over Covington’s left eye.
Regardless of the damage, Covington delivered a good second spherical the place he managed to muscle Buckley right down to the mat, however was unable to capitalize on the favorable place. Following the top of the second stanza, the cageside doctor made it clear that she wouldn’t let the combat go for much longer with Covington’s eye already in a compromised state.
The third spherical noticed Buckley proceed his dominance on the texture whereas Covington desperately tried to work ‘New Mansa’ again to the mat. Earlier than lengthy, Covington logged one other profitable takedown, however Buckley was once more in a position to wall-walk his approach again up.
As soon as the 2 fighters have been upright, referee Dan Miragliotta referred to as for a pause to have the physician verify Covington’s eye as soon as once more. It solely took seconds for her to find out that Covington mustn’t proceed preventing, forcing Miragliotta to convey a cease to the bout with solely seconds left within the third.
Official Outcome: Joaquin Buckley def. Colby Covington through TKO (physician’s stoppage) at 4:42 of Spherical 3