This past Saturday night, Dana White doubled down on his statements that Colby Covington is next in line for Leon Edwards's Welterweight Title. I've gone over how Colby isn't deserving of a title shot at this current moment in time, but I'm so sick of the "Colby would be a champion if Usman didn't exist, and he's the second-best guy in the world" narratives because Leon just proved that there can be another champion while Usman exists after beating him twice. Frankly, Colby isn't even close to the second-best guy in the world anymore. When you compare Colby's resume to various current Welterweights and a few past Welterweights it's hard to say he is still close to being the second-best guy.
Outside of his title fights against Usman, Colby only has two impressive wins. Defeating Rafael Dos Santos in 2018 is an impressive win any way you cut it up. The same goes for Demian Maia in 2017. Colby then beat an old Robbie Lawler, washed up Tyron Woodley, and Jorge "I won't grapple" Masvidal.
These are the wins that most fans talk about for Colby, not his wins over RDA or Demian Maia. Colby's last three wins are less impressive than winning a game of tick-tack-toe. A Youtuber beat Woodley in a boxing match. Lawler's last win outside of old and out-of-shape Nick Diaz came in 2017. As for Jorge, he just can't grapple to save his life which is Colby's bread and butter. Even though Colby beat Masvidal and Woodley I can argue they have better resumes. The thing with Jorge is that he'll literally fight anyone, and take away wins and losses the names he's signed up to fight are off the charts.
With Woodley, there's no argument in my opinion. Yes, his last four fights in the UFC and his two boxing matches with Jake Paul left a sour taste in our mouths, but the man does have three successful title defenses and beat most of the same guys Colby has, but when they were far sprier. Colby beat Woodley after Usman and Burns destroyed him in back-to-back decisions.
Now with title defenses clearly being a huge factor in differentiating resumes that automatically makes GSP, Usman, and now Leon Edwards's resumes far more impressive than Covington's.
Leon now has one successful title defense, Usman has five, and GSP has ten. The only time Colby has ever held the belt was an interim title. That takes a lot of hard work and skill, but no one was talking about "Dustin Poirier would be the Lightweight Champion if Khabib didn't exist" during Khabib's run. Maybe that's because the Welterweight division has been somewhat weak compared to the Lightweights. Colby also chose to fight weaker opponents as I mentioned above.
As far as fighters go who have never won the belt, Nate Diaz and Stephen Thompson are guys who will fight anyone.
Thompson struggles with grappling and when fights are taken to the ground, but like Masvidal, if you took away his wins and losses you would be blown away by the names that he's fought like Robert Whittaker, Tyron Woodley, and Gilbert Burns. That's a pro fighter, that's a guy who isn't afraid to step in the cage with anyone.
Obviously the same can be said for Nate Diaz. There is not one fighter in the world that Nate Diaz wouldn't fight. If wins and losses didn't matter, Nate might be regarded as the GOAT. Nate will scrap with anyone. When you look at his body of work you can tell Nate fought whoever, whenever. You can't say that about Colby when you look at his resume.
As for the current Welterweights in contention, Gilbert Burns can be looked at exactly the same way as Masvidal and Stephen Thompson.
Belal Muhammad's resume on the other hand looks more in line with Leon Edwards, Kamaru Usman, and GSP. Muhammad is on a nine-fight win streak with wins over extremely impressive names. Belal has a championship-caliber resume without a championship bout. He has the big wins against ranked opponents, just no title shots yet. At this point, it just feels like Colby's resume is losing title fights. How is that fair to a contender like Belal?
Don't get confused by the big name and the childish corny persona of a high school bully. Colby Covington is overrated. His recent resume looks more like Jake Paul's boxing resume.
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