Morning Report: Henry Cejudo picks Joaquin Buckley to finish Colby Covington

Henry Cejudo doesn’t see Colby Covington getting again on the successful monitor anytime quickly.

“Chaos” returns to the octagon for the primary time in a 12 months when he fights Joaquin Buckley in the primary occasion of UFC Tampa on Dec. 14. The previous interim champion and three-time undisputed title challenger steps in on short-notice as a substitute for Ian Machado Garry, who was rescheduled to struggle Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310.

The previous few matchups have been a roller-coaster for Covington, who has solely misplaced to elite competitors in his previous 5 fights, but additionally solely crushed Jorge Masvidal and Tyron Woodley, two fighters who’re not on the energetic roster.

On Cejudo and Kamaru Usman’s Pound 4 Pound podcast, Usman broke down his ideas on the matchup between Buckley and his longtime rival Covington.

“I feel it’s an excellent stylistic matchup as a result of proper now you’ve obtained Joaquin Buckley, he’s going to run off combos, attempting to land these large photographs to doubtlessly get you out of there,” Usman mentioned. “Colby Covington is a man that you possibly can doubtlessly get with the large shot.

“However Colby is also the opposite facet of that coin. He can get ahold of you, drag you down if he makes use of his wrestling. As a result of we noticed his final struggle, he didn’t precisely make the most of that wrestling till the later rounds when he obtained just a little bit extra comfy, and now he’s been out for fairly a while, once more, so who is aware of?”

Buckley is presently on a five-fight win streak that coincided with a transfer all the way down to the welterweight division in 2023. In his most up-to-date outing, Buckley scored a third-round knockout of longtime contender Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson to leap to No. 10 within the MMA Preventing World Rankings.

Given Buckley’s rise and Covington’s seeming decline, Cejudo favors Buckley to complete Covington in Tampa.

“The type of Colby Covington is so predictable now and the truth that they’ve seen him lose time and time once more, whether or not it’s with Leon Edwards or your self, it’s there,” Cejudo mentioned. “When you cease Colby’s takedowns, issues will fall into place.

“Take a look at how Joaquin covers distance. Double fakes, dipping in to ultimately cease a dude like Wonderboy, so I’m excessive on this child. This child is harmful. I can see Colby Covington dropping through stoppage to a man like Joaquin Buckley, and I really do imagine that.”

Usman agreed with Cejudo’s evaluation, however instructed that Buckley may have a more durable time of it than Cejudo expects.

“All of these issues work nice once you’re preventing a man that’s not a wrestler, that may’t change ranges,” Usman mentioned. “Colby will—As an alternative of evading the way in which Wonderboy was, what can we do as wrestlers? We modify ranges, reduce you down, and so we’ll see.

“Solely time will inform as a result of Colby’s been out for some time and historically-speaking time hasn’t actually been the nice issue for Colby Covington in between these fights. So I don’t know. I just like the struggle, although, I like that struggle. I’m truly excited to see that struggle.”

P4P. Is Jon Jones again at No. 1 on the pound-for-pound checklist?

Eyeballs. Netflix touts a nine-figure viewership for the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson struggle.

Meh. Matt Brown wasn’t thrilled with both half of the UFC 309 major occasion.

Splash. You do NOT throw water at Darren Until!

Don’t. Man is completely satisfied to let ALEX PEREIRA take a number of free photographs at him.

The Korean Zombie meets Poatan

Teddy Atlas on Paul vs. Tyson

Volkan Oezdemir vs. Johnny Walker free struggle

Fighter vs. Author.

The Co-Major Occasion. Ben Fowlkes and Chad Dundas wax poetic on Paul vs. Tyson and UFC 309.

Good for you.

Be careful for Gaziev, although.

Who, although?

Option to punch, no-punch.

Get properly quickly.

Kai is coming.

Ricky Turcios (12-4) vs. Bernardo Sopai (11-3); UFC 311, Jan. 18

Anthony Hernandez (13-2, 1 NC) vs. Brendan Allen; UFC Combat Night time, Feb. 22

Have all of us recovered from the weekend?

Even within the fast-moving world of MMA, the stench of Paul vs. Tyson and the discourse surrounding the return of Jon Jones nonetheless really feel fairly recent. You get the sense that at the same time as we march in direction of the brand new 12 months, Paul and Jones are going to discover a approach to dominate the headlines in 2025.

So stay up for all of that!

When you discover one thing you’d prefer to see within the Morning Report, hit up @AlexanderKlee or @JedKMeshew on Twitter and tell us about it. Additionally, comply with MMAFighting on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and like us on Fb.