UFC news, rumors: Colby Covington reveals why Tyron Woodley fight needs to be delayed

Covington just needs a bit more recovery time before stepping into the cage again

On Thursday, it was revealed there's a chance that the Colby Covington vs. Tyron Woodley welterweight championship unification match may not take place in September as we all originally expected. After earning the interim belt by defeating Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 225, Covington will not be ready to go by the time Woodley is able to return from shoulder surgery, and the interim champ didn't waste time in offering up an explanation. 

Covington needs more time to recover

Sitting down recently for an interview with Submission Radio, Covington revealed that he needs a little more time to get back to full health following his interim title win over dos Anjos in June. Some injuries were sustained in the battle with the legend, meaning that a quick turnaround to fight Woodley to crown an undisputed champ in September just ins't plausible. Of course, in typical Covington fashion, he ended the explanation by taking a verbal jab at Woodley. 

"We're looking at doing it in November, December," Covington said. "You know, I need a little time off, I need to do a little recovering. I'm only human, man, I gotta get a little vacation. I just can't keep running my body through the ground, going through training camps. You have to be strategic, and you know, November, December works for me. I had little health issues after my fight, so I'm getting those taken care of and by the year's end I will unify my belt and retire Tyron Woodley for good." 

While Covington isn't the most popular personality in the UFC by any means, he's not really asking for much here; just a couple more months to collect himself before a fight everyone wants to see. It's understandable that the UFC wants this fight to take place as soon as possible now that Woodley is healthy, but at the same time, they put Covington in the cage with one of the best fighters in UFC history to crown an interim champion they, quite frankly, really didn't need.

Should the promotion ultimately decide to shelf the Covington-Woodley match, the popular idea is that Woodley could defend his title against English up-and-comer Darren Till. 

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More UFC news, rumors

• In a move that was very much expected, Michael Chiesa is heading up to the welterweight ranks. Chiesa missed the lightweight limit of 155 pounds prior to his UFC 226 bout with Anthony Pettis, and right there on the scale, Chiesa admitted that it would be his last fight in the division after another brutal weight cut. He dropped the official announcement on his Instagram. 

Humbled & Hungry • • • In the last few years, I’ve felt my skills as a fighter drastically improve, especially through 2018 but I’ve yet to reflect that. There’s a couple changes that need to be made, one being something new and the other is returning to something from the past. Obviously the new is it’s time for me to test the waters at welterweight. All of my family, many of my teammates and almost all my coaches have been trying to talk me into going up a weight class. I spend the better half of my camps stressed about weight, feeling like a shadow of myself in training and just being miserable doing the thing I love most in the world. I pushed my body very hard this last cut, one of the scariest experiences of my life and I still failed. I don’t want experience that ever again. • The thing from my past I must return to is just being myself. I’m not fit to talk trash, hype fights, banter people and be apart of that trend we see in this sport. It’s not who I am but I let myself fall into what’s now the norm in MMA. I’m back to being the person I once was when I won The Ultimate Fighter, when I was stringing together wins in the UFC, shit even just being who I was before I got to where I am now. Back to my humble, grounded, hard nosed, blue collar ways where I was grinding out wins and just grinding for everything I have because that’s who I really am, that’s what type of man my dad raised me to be. I will never let myself get away from being who I truly am ever again. • • • #visionquest #avanti

A post shared by Michael Chiesa (@mikemav22) on Jul 19, 2018 at 8:11pm PDT

• Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez recently spent some time at the WWE Performance Center, leading many to believe that a career in professional wrestling may be on the horizon. ESPN's Ariel Helwani on Twitter reported that Velasquez enjoyed his time with the WWE crew this past week and that his future options are open. 
• Dual-champion Daniel Cormier is looking to make a defense of his light heavyweight championship before he puts his recently-won heavyweight title up for grabs against Brock Lesnar next year, and one potential opponent DC pointed to was Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. Ahead of his main event bout in Hamburg, Germany this weekend against Anthony Smith, where a victory could very well earn him the shot, Rua admitted to MMA Fighting he was both grateful and surprised that he was called out by the new No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the company.