Covington Targets 'Cardio Kickboxer' Strickland At 185

01/06/2025 07:03 AM

Covington is considering spending half of 2025 putting on weight for a move to 185 pounds, and he has Strickland in his sights.

Colby Covington is considering a big career move up to 185 pounds.

The one-time interim welterweight champion and three time welterweight title fight loser is just 2-4 over the past five years at 170 pounds. He may have a ton of excuses for that latest loss to Joaquin Buckley in Tampa, but the reality was he was too slow for Buckley and probably most of the up-and-coming younger contenders in the division.

So perhaps it isn't so surprising that Covington is considering a move to middleweight.

"Honestly, 185 is intriguing," Colby told Submission Radio. "I think it would be kind of cool to go up there with the narrative like, 'Oh, this guy's a small 170. He's going to go up to 185 and take on an even bigger challenge.' So there is a possibility, I'm always looking for the biggest and best fights. So we'll see."

"Chaos" has fought once per year since 2020, and moving up also gives him an excuse to ride that pine rather than face hungry up-and-comers like Ian Machado Garry.

"I think I would go into like a heavy lifting program, because I've always been about cardio and high interval training," Covington said. "I would take a couple months, like two, three, four months to just really get on a good weight regimen to put muscle on. You want to get power and you want to be strong at that weight class. I know those guys are a lot slower. That's why guys that leave welterweight and they go to middleweight have so much success."

"Guys like Whittaker became champion, a guy like Sean Strickland became a champion. They leave welterweight where these guys are fast. They've got good cardio. These are the best athletes on the planet in this weight class. So they go up and they have so much success at middleweight because the middleweights are unathletic. They're slow. So there is something to be said with that."

As for who he'd like to fight?

"Sean Strickland fights, always interesting," Covington said. "He's had his things to say about me in the past, I don't think he's anything special. He's got a jab, he's got a front kick. But besides that, you shut those those weapons down and he's very limited. He's a cardio fighter. He's just a cardio kickboxer, essentially. So I don't think I don't see any threats out of Sean Strickland. It's an entertaining fight that I might entertain in the future."

Strickland also happens to be the No. 1 contender at middleweight and is currently preparing to rematch Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312 in February. So not a bad option to jump right into the top of the 185 pound pile. Also an option that wouldn't be available until July or August. So if you were expecting Colby Covington to come back soon to show the world what he can really do after actually training for a fight? Yeah, that doesn't sound like it's happening.