Colby Covington is one of the most polarising figures in the UFC but the top welterweight contender has just been promoted to BJJ black belt by his coach Daniel Valverde. Covington has actually been working with Valverde for a very long time, and has even spoken publicly about how much he believes in his coach’s fantastic Jiu-Jitsu and Judo ability in the past. Covington has been a fantastic grappler for a long time of course, and he’s been more than capable of handling BJJ black belts on the ground throughout his professional MMA career.
Covington was an NCAA All-American and a two-time Pac-10 champion before he ever decided to make the transition to MMA, so he already had a fantastic starting point. He’s been able to use that wrestling pedigree to full effect right from the start, winning his first five fights in a row and being signed to the UFC very quickly. He stumbled once and was submitted early on in his UFC career but other than that, he built up a fantastic run all the way to an interim welterweight title and a 15-1 professional record.
That earned him a shot at the reigning champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 245, where he was knocked out for the first time in his professional career. He got back in the win column and earnt a rematch with Usman, but unfortunately dropped a decision on his second attempt at glory. Covington was last seen defeating Jorge Masvidal at UFC 272 and is now patiently waiting for his opportunity to fight the current welterweight champion Leon Edwards. Now the next time that Colby Covington steps in the cage he’ll be doing it as a BJJ black belt and he’ll no doubt be eager to put his elite grappling skills to good work once again.
The news that Colby Covington was promoted to BJJ black belt was announced in a post to his official Instagram account:
