Colby Covington Discusses Potential UFC Retirement, MMA Star Hasn't Won Fight in 4+ Years

Colby Covington might have fought his last fight in his UFC career.

The MMA star discussed his future with Ariel Helwani on Wednesday, saying he doesn't know if he will compete again:

His name was previously removed from the UFC roster, and he was listed as retired on UFC's website earlier this month.

Covington began his MMA career in 2012 and made his UFC debut at Fight Night in 2014. He started his career with three wins before losing to Warlley Alves at UFC 194 in 2015.

After his first loss, he went on to win seven consecutive fights, but his success then started to dwindle. He has lost four of his last six fights, with his most recent win coming at UFC 272 against Jorge Masvidal. He lost to Leon Edwards at UFC 296 and to Joaquin Buckley in December 2024, which was his last fight.

Covington has a 12-5 career record, having held the Welterweight title for more than a year.

His potential exit comes just weeks before the UFC White House event, a fight card he had previously campaigned to get a spot on. He voiced his frustration with the UFC last month, saying that there weren't enough Americans on the fight card.

"I mean, it's the celebration of the 250th birthday of the greatest country on God's green Earth, America," he said on The Ariel Helwani Show (h/t MMA Weekly's Jeff Cain). "You'd think there'd be more American fighters on it from top to bottom. You'd think there'd maybe be some favorable matchups for the American."

Covington also said in March that he felt slighted by the UFC's decision not to include him on the fight card.

"I thought that I was a shoo-in for that spot," he said. "I'm the one that brought Trump into UFC back in 2018 when no one was supporting him … I thought I was going to get that call to represent the U.S. and get on that White House card. Unfortunately it wasn't in their cards. Hunter didn't give me the opportunity, the UFC didn't give me the opportunity."

The 38-year-old must now decide what comes next for his MMA career.