A guide to Colby Covington and gas tank attrition

 Colby Covington is one of the most divisive figures in ufc history. The former All American has been one of the most effective wrestlers in the sport’s history. Colby’s success is often attributed to his seemingly endless cardio but it ultimately comes down to his gas tank management. While Colby’s style is high output and he has exceptional cardio, his style is ultimately based around resource management, the resource in question being energy. For every action Colby does he tries to ensure that his opponent uses more effort in their reaction, slowly wearing on them for the duration of the bout. His striking, grappling and ground control all revolve around getting easy takedowns and then forcing his opponents to bear his weight, practically having to squat him to get back to their feet. Covington’s high output is not a testament to performance enhancing drugs or freakish genetics, but instead to the power of pace management.

Covington’s striking is somewhat goofy to look at, his ridiculously high output and regular use of flashy moves like tornado kicks looking like something out of a cardio kickboxing class. Colby’s output might not be delivering any highlight reel ko’s, but what it does do effectively is that it forces a reaction. No matter how bad the mechanics of a punch are, if you spend 25 minutes eating strikes you are almost guaranteed to lose a decision (Chito Vera vs Rob Font would be an exception to this). When met with an aggressive volume striker an effective way to deal with it is to hit them really hard. If you can hurt someone with a counter they are almost guaranteed to turn down the aggression. Colby, however, is waiting for this, looking to duck under a swing or a right hand straight onto the hips, cleanly finishing a takedown. Colby will string together elongated punching combinations just to force a reaction from their opponent, even if it is just for them to put up their guard so he can get a clean line to the hips. Colby’s punching mechanics help with this, as he ducks his head as he throws almost every shot. While this looks pretty goofy, it works to hide his level change, making it easier to shoot a takedown, while also being a convincing takedown feint, the dilemma between throwing a counter or stuffing the takedown makes it less likely for his opponent to get either. The takedown feint also takes a major role in Covington’s kicking game, the wrestler often dropping his level and throwing up a high kick, catching the opponent clean if they drop their hands to pre-emptively stop a takedown. Covington will also use his kicks to drain his opponent’s gas tank, throwing body kicks to the open side (the side of the body where the belly button points) and taking the wind out of them as his shin slams against his organs. His teep plays a similar role, gassing out his opponent while also pushing them to the fence, putting them in prime position for cage wrestling. While it often looks a bit goofy, Covington’s striking plays an extremely important role in his wrestling, coaxing opponents into striking reactions that will give up the takedown and being able to force his opponent into a high pace that will gas them out, aided in his defence with the threat of the takedown.

While many wrestlers cut tremendous amounts of weight, hoping to get a size advantage that will aid them in taking down an opponent, Covington purposely chooses to cut less weight, believing this to be advantageous to him. While this is beneficial to his cardio, the lack of a draining weight cut improving his stamina, it also works because of Covington’s chain wrestling. Instead grinding through and forcing takedowns like a Benoit Saint Denis through sheer grit and raw strength, Covington will be quick to abandon takedowns that he believes will cost him too much energy, effortlessly transitioning to another attack if he cannot get them. If he cannot finish a single or a double leg in the open he will look to drive his opponent to the fence from which position he will look to work his wall wrestling chain. When on the wall Covington’s wrestling is based around the single leg. The single leg plays an important role as it can be moved to from every wrestling position. Colby will pin the opponent to the fence with his single leg and then use it as a stage to move to a double. When the opponent disconnects his hands on the double he will either drop to an ankle pick or move back to the single leg. If the opponent defends the single leg Colby can then transition to the underhook to keep the opponent pinned, eventually moving back down to a leg attack or moving to a body lock with double underhooks, getting the takedown off of that. The beauty of Covington’s wrestling comes from the fact that by keeping his transitions so smoothe, it makes the cost of a failed takedown significantly less of an issue. By moving from takedown to takedown it means that Colby doesn’t have to waste energy trying to force his opponent to the ground, meaning that the opponent isn’t getting a cardio advantage through exerting less effort, even in a grindy, wrestling heavy fight. By pinning the opponent to the cage Covington can often force his opponent to work harder to move themselves off the fence, making explosive movements that sometimes Covington is able to time with a sneaky knee pick (provided he still has the underhook), forcing the opponent to have to get up all over again.

The reason college wrestlers have had such success compared to freestyle or Greco Roman is that not only are they taught how to take people down, but also how to hold them down. Covington’s riding is exhausting to be on the bottom of, with Colby using mat returns and wrestling rides to keep his opponent on the canvas, but also meaning that they have to utilise a lot of energy in order to get back to their feet. Colby’s mat wrestling game is based almost entirely around the cross body ride, getting a hook in and using it to stay on top of his opponent, keeping his weight over the top of their centre of gravity. He will usually slip this hook in as the opponent turns to their stomach to wall walk, giving up the inside space Colby needs to throw his leg in. If the opponent tries to scoot their back to the fence while on their butt Covington will lift one of their ankles up so they can’t drive up to their feet, walking around their legs to get the dominant angle and threatening the guard pass if they don’t give up their back and turtle. If the opponent tries to build up Covington likes to threaten the rear naked choke. While he usually doesn’t have both hooks in or even his arm under the chin, Covington can prevent the opponent from extending their body while they build height, with correct posture giving up the neck. The lack of hooks make the choke a lot easier to escape, giving the choke-ee the avenue of escape to turn their back to the floor. While this lowers Covington’s finishing rate with the move, it forces the opponent to pin themselves. If the opponent does manage to start building height Covington will ensure that they are brought back down with his mat returns. Colby combines a classic knee wedge mat return with the suck back, using a push-pull philosophy in order to bait the opponent into giving up significant leverage that can be used to send them back to the mat. Covington’s methods of keeping his opponents on the mat are as efficient as they are effective, forcing his opponent into making continuous feats of strength to get back to their feet.

Colby Covington has managed to weaponize pace in a way seldom seen in mma. While many fighters trying to out-cardio their opponents stick to striking, such as Tony Ferguson and Nick Diaz, Colby counter intuitively uses a very taxing style of grindy wrestling and turns it into an advantage. Covington’s high output style has a higher return, wearing down his opponents with a perfect mix of setting up and chaining takedowns, bolstered by effective volume striking and high level mat wrestling. Covington’s ability to take down and overwhelm bigger opponents time after time is a testament to how pace management isn’t just not doing anything or body shots, but instead using your own energy to create exchanges where his opponent is using more energy than you are.