Rumors of Colby Covington returning to the cage abound in the wake of a since-edited Instagram post purporting his return to the UFC. The Instagram account in question is known as @roundupdavie and they definitely got MMA fans buzzing with an unsubstantiated report about Covington possibly returning at UFC 309.
The social media for Round Up Country Western Nightclub initially posted:
"It was awesome having @colbycovington here this past weekend! Such a humble and nice guy. We couldn't get him on the mechanical bull since he's prepping for his fight in November, but we'll be cheering you on then. Thanks for taking photos with our staff and photographer, and we hope to see you back soon."
This post has since been edited to omit this information about a rumored UFC 309 fight for the former interim welterweight champion.
Check the since-edited Instagram post on Colby Covington's rumored return below:
Colby Covington and his rate of activity this decade
Colby Covington has been the focus of this recent round of rumors regarding potentially returning to the cage for Q4 of 2024. If this did end up coming to fruition, it would follow a broader trend that Covington has established throughout the 2020s. This pattern has seen the 36-year-old compete once per calendar year since the decade began.
Covington defeated Tyron Woodley in September 2020 via a fifth-round injury-based TKO during their UFC Fight Night main event bout.
He would return to the cage in 2021 to fall short in a rematch to Kamaru Usman in November of that year. The UFC 268 pay-per-view headliner marked the second bid for the lineal welterweight title in Covington's promotional run as he would lose by way of unanimous decision.
Covington had his lone contest of 2022 against Jorge Masvidal in a rare non-title pay-per-view headliner for the UFC. This was informed by a lot of bad blood from the former best friends turned arch-rivals. 'Chaos' bested Masvidal via unanimous decision at UFC 272.
The United States native would then compete in December 2023 in what was his third bid for the lineal UFC welterweight title. He would again lose on points by falling short to then-champion Leon Edwards at UFC 296.
If this November return did end up becoming official and got locked into the UFC schedule, there would be no shortage of welterweight contenders who would want to sign on the dotted line to face Covington.