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Colby Covington and Khabib Nurmagomedov are tied for 10th spot on a list of fighters with the most takedowns completed in the UFC.
Two of the best wrestlers in MMA, Covington and Nurmagomedov, each boast a record of sixty-one successful takedowns throughout their UFC tenures. They are also in a deadlock with former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks.
What's impressive about Colby Covington and Khabib Nurmagomedov is that they needed fewer fights than Hendricks to get to sixty-one takedowns. Both fighters were able to accomplish the feat within thirteen fights while Hendricks had to compete twenty-one times before securing the same number.
Then again, the sheer volume of takedown stats alone doesn't determine how dominant a wrestler is. For instance, Nurmagomedov only has an average of 3.83 takedowns per fight because most of his opponents fail to get back up after getting taken to the ground.
Covington will inevitably surpass Nurmagomedov and Hendricks as he is still active, while the other two are already retired.
A segment of observers believe Covington should already have 62 takedowns on his resume after he dragged Kamaru Usman to his knees in round three of their UFC 268 title fight. However, the takedown wasn't scored in Covington's favor and the record books will show that Usman still has a perfect takedown defense rate.
But in the eyes of many – including former Olympic freestyle wrestler and NCAA Division I runner-up Daniel Cormier – Covington deserved credit for the takedown.
Colby Covington explains why he doesn't consider Khabib Nurmagomedov to be the GOAT
Colby Covington believes Khabib Nurmagomedov's reign as the lightweight champion was too short to be considered the greatest of all time. During an interview with James Lynch, 'Chaos' said that retiring with an undefeated record is impressive, but having just three title defenses is the argument against Khabib. According to Covington:
"Yeah, [Khabib Nurmagomedov is] in the conversation, he's up there but, yeah, he never defended his title that many times. He took a lot of breaks and you know, he never really had someone that was well-rounded that fought him. He fought a bunch of strikers, it was good timing for his career. He didn't have to fight anybody that could wrestle and strike with him," said Colby Covington.
