The Backup Quarterbacks of Fighting

This next month at UFC 296, Welterweight champion Leon Edwards will be fighting former interim champion Colby Covington, but not without some controversy. 

Many argue (including Edwards) that Covington does not deserve this chance at the title. He last fought in March of 2021, beating Jorge Masvidal, who has not won a fight since 2019 and has retired from the sport since that fight. Beyond his inactivity, Covington is just 2-2 in his last four fights, and besides Masvidal, only defeating former champion Tyron Woodley who has not won a professional bout since. These accomplishments have been contrasted with contender Belal Muhammad, who has not lost any of his last 10 fights and has truly worked his way up through the ranks of the welterweight division.

Many attribute the UFC’s decision to give Covington this fight over Muhammad to Covington’s popularity and marketing success from prior UFC events. Covington has become a figure in the MMA community that you either love or hate with his loud personality, crude language, and divisive political claims. 

While I agree that Covington’s star power was most definitely a factor at play here, one piece that has not been talked about enough was that Covington has been a valuable asset to the UFC as a backup fighter. 

The UFC having backup fighters is a new phenomenon, but it makes sense why they have it. 

Older fans may remember the UFC 151 event, in that it never happened. Light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones was supposed to fight contender Dan Henderson, and after Henderson went out with an injury, and Jones did not agree to fight the replacement of Chael Sonnen on short notice, the whole event was scrapped. 

You might also remember UFC 234, where Middleweight champion Robert Whittaker was supposed to fight contender Kelvin Gastelum, but when Whittaker had a medical emergency just hours before the event, the fight could not go on. Fans then got just a 3-round fight for their main event between an old former champ, Anderson Silva, and a then new upcoming star, Israel Adesanya. 

In addition to medical emergencies, there’s also the issue that a party may not make weight for their fight. Yoel Romero is a famous example of this as he struggled to make the 185 lb limit for middleweights, and so multiple of his title shots turned into non-title bouts or fights where he could not win the belt. Pay-per-view numbers and the overall popularity of the sport will always decrease when there’s not a championship on the line.

Having a backup fighter solves these issues that can ruin a whole event. It sets in stone a replacement that both parties can agree to fight if one of them cannot do it for some reason. The UFC can be sure that an event will go on even in extenuating circumstances.

For this Covington situation, put yourself in the shoes of the UFC. You have one fighter who has brought massive pay-per-view ratings and then took the time to make weight and give you insurance on an event, while the other has just quietly won fights without much attention or profit. It’s clear that Covington brought more value to the company, which includes being a backup fighter, and that’s why he got this fight. 

This is not the first time this has happened. Current featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski was the backup fighter in October 2022 for the lightweight title between Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira. After making weight for this fight, that next February, Volkanovski was given the opportunity to fight for a second title in a different division against Makhachev. 

Current middleweight champion Sean Strickland has a similar story, as he was known for almost always fighting on short notice, coming in for another fighter’s injury, especially for the many UFC Fight Night events in Las Vegas, where his presence would at least salvage the rating for the event. Strickland was eventually given a title shot that many people questioned until he pulled off the upset against Israel Adesanya to become the champion. Given that Strickland is not the star that Covington is, we have not seen the same amount of criticisms of his title chance.

It’s clear that those fighters who put in the time to be a backup will get preferential treatment from the UFC.

Now, is any of this right or justified? Absolutely not. Just because something is good for the company does not mean it is good for the sport. Having these backup fighters get favorable matchmaking ruins the meritocracy that we love about sports. Everyone agrees that the team with the most wins should get the best spot in the playoffs for the MLB, NFL, and NBA, and not the team the league likes the most. 

We can all hope that the UFC will become a more democratic sports league, but to think about how they make decisions as if they currently are is just not true. MMA is not like basketball, where the NBA has a monopoly over the sport, but the UFC is just the biggest promotion of many promotions around the world that are competing with each other to survive and make a profit. The UFC has to do what it can to make money and survive given the situation of the sport. I’d like to think that making the sport the most fair it can be is the way to make the greatest profit, but that’s just not always true, as we’ve seen with this Covington situation. 

While there are still many arguments about how Covington’s popularity and marketability gave him the fight next month, it is hard to deny that being a backup fighter could not have given him better treatment from the UFC. For those who follow MMA, we now need to pay attention to who weighs before the other fighters as the backup, as it will be another factor in who will make their mark on this sport.