Covington, Buckley throw down in final UFC event of 2024

Colby Covington and Joaquin Buckley will throw down in the final UFC fight of 2024, as they meet in the welterweight main event of a Fight Night at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, on the morning of Sunday 15 December.

Covington (17-4), a former welterweight interim champion, has alternated between losses and wins in his last five trips to the Octagon, most recently going down by unanimous decision to Leon Edwards in a title fight one year ago.

The 36-year-old ‘Chaos’ has stepped in to replace Ian Machado Garry, who was ‘promoted’ to a welterweight title eliminator at UFC 310 against Shavkat Rakhmonov earlier this month.

Buckley (20-6) has put together a five-match winning streak in the past 19 months, most recently finishing MMA legend Stephen Thompson with a KO win in October.

The 30-year-old ‘New Mansa’ was disappointed to miss out on fighting Garry, but is happy to get the chance to take on the ‘inactive’ Covington.

“They took my main event, no more Buck v C*ck. They gave that man a shot to fight for the interim title. That's some old bull and now they want to give me Colby Covington. He ain't fight since Obama was in office, it's all good though, Buck gonna be alright,” said Buckley.

He added, “Make sure y’all check me out December 14th in Tamba Bay, we got another knockout to get, but damn Buck versus C*ck would have been a good a** fight.”

The rest of the main card features a featherweight fight pitting Cub Swanson against Billy Quarantillo; the light heavyweight division is represented by Vitor Petrino v Dustin Jacoby and Navajo Stirling v Tuco Tokkos; a bantamweight match sees Adrian Yanez tackle Daniel Marcos; and Manel Kape battles Bruno Silva in the flyweight category.

UFC Fight Night: Covington v Buckley – Main card

- Main event: Welterweight: Colby Covington v Joaquin Buckley

- Featherweight: Cub Swanson v Billy Quarantillo

- Light heavyweight: Vitor Petrino v Dustin Jacoby

- Bantamweight: Adrian Yanez v Daniel Marcos

- Flyweight: Manel Kape v Bruno Silva

- Light heavyweight: Navajo Stirling v Tuco Tokkos