Joaquin Buckley batters Colby Covington to TKO victory after a gruesome injury

"I know we spilled a little love, I know you guys wanted to see a knockout," Buckley said after the fight apologizing for not KOing Covington. He offered three names to the crowd and asked them to pick, the crowd cheered the loudest for former champion Kamaru Usman. 

Early in the first round, Buckley cut Covington and then defended Covington's takedown attempts. Buckley made Covington look weak in their exchange's first five minutes with Covington controlling Buckley for just under 30 seconds of the round. Buckley ended the round with a big knockdown and was saved by the bell. 

In the second round, Covington came out swinging eager to take back control of the fight. Buckley defends the takedown again and flurries on Covington who has a badly damaged eye. Finally with three minutes remaining Covington finally got the takedown and was able to hold Buckley against the fence. With another two minutes remaining, Buckley got back to his feet and the striking game was back on. They ended the fight on their feet, a closer round but it was probably still a Buckley round. 

The doctor warned Covington between rounds to protect the cut as he didn't see allowing the fight to go on if it got any worse. Within seconds Buckley landed huge flurris and then it was him on top of Covington on the canvas. Back to the feet, they are swinging again. Covington has blood all over his face from the damage that Buckley inflicted. Buckley gets him into a triangle choke but all the blood allows Covington to slip out. Covington takes top control in the final minute but he isn't really doing much damage or putting Buckley in any danger. With just seconds remaining the doctor stepped in to call the fight off due to the cut to Covington's eyelid. 

Covington was making his return to the Octagon after a year hiatus. The former interim title holder and multiple-time title challenger was looking to rebound from his UFC 296 loss to Leon Edwards. He's gone win-loss, win-loss since defeating Robbie Lawler in 2019. 

Buckley was stepping into the biggest fight of his career to date. He went into the fight on a five-fight win streak with recent victories over Stephen Thompson, Nursulton Ruziboev, and Vicente Luque.