Colby Covington catches strays as ex-UFC star takes aim at Johnny Walker's call out of Jan Blachowicz: "Made his whole career"

Colby Covington's controversial promotional tactics and trash talk have not earned him any favor among fellow MMA fighters and analysts. As a result, 'Chaos' often finds himself on the receiving end of sharp criticism.

Recently, light heavyweight contender Johnny Walker called out former champion Jan Blachowicz following his upset win over Zhang Mingyang at UFC Shanghai. Blachowicz, 42, is one of the oldest ranked contenders in the UFC and is considered to be past his prime, having suffered two consecutive defeats in recent fights.

In the recent episode of the Weighing In podcast, host John McCarthy shared his thoughts on Walker's callout, stating:

"You have to give it to [Walker]. He won and he called out jan Blachowicz. I kind of like that. That's a good call-out. If you're going to call someone out, call out the old guy. It's a smart move."

McCarthy's co-host and ex-UFC fighter, Josh Thomson, made a veiled jab at Covington for allegedly employing a similar strategy of targeting older fighters:

"Yeah, absolutely! Colby Covington's made a whole career out of that."

Check out Josh Thomson and John McCarthy's comments below (7:55):

For context, some of the most notable victories of Covington's professional MMA career came against Demian Maia, Rafael Dos Anjos, Tyron Woodley, Robbie Lawler and Jorge Masvidal. Many believe that these fighters were past their prime when they faced Covington.

---

Colby Covington's recent career trajectory

Colby Covington was considered to be the second-best welterweight during Kamaru Usman's title reign. He faced Usman in two closely contested title fights, both of which 'The Nigerian Nightmare' won.

However, Covington has struggled to achieve consistent success in recent years, and his level of activity has significantly decreased. The 37-year-old has a 2-3 record since his first fight against Usman.

His last win came against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 272 in March 2022. Since then, 'Chaos' has suffered lopsided defeats against Leon Edwards and Joaquin Buckley. In recent months, he has expressed his desire to move up to middleweight and even previewed how a potential fight against Sean Strickland could play out.