Dan Lambert provides update on Colby Covington

Colby Covington came up short in his bid to capture the UFC welterweight title at UFC 245, succumbing to fifth-round punches from the champion Kamaru Usman. Yet according to Dan Lambert, the owner of American Top Team, where Covington trains, the recent welterweight title challenger is still as confident as ever.

“He is a 10 out of 10 as far as what I would hope his mindset would be after a fight like that,” Lambert told MMA Fighting of Covington. “He wants to get right back in. He wants to get right back into training. He wants to get back into training as soon as he’s ready health wise. He wants to get back and prove that he’s the best.

“You never know how a fighter’s going to respond to something like that. When I first talked to him, I had my concerns cause you just never know. I could not have scripted his response any better than what I heard from him. He’s 1,000 percent positive, 1,000 percent motivated. He’s ready to go. He didn’t lose one piece of confidence in himself.”

Lambert also provided an update on the jaw injury Covington sustained in the fight.

“He came back to Florida to go see an oral surgeon here to figure out what he wanted to do,” he said.

“I’m not real familiar with what the different statuses are with the jaw but I know one thing, he’s a tough motherf*cker to fight with it for three rounds in that kind of stand-up war.”

While Covington failed to capture the UFC welterweight belt as he planned, Lambert believes the fighter earned himself the respect of the fight community with his gutsy performance.

“It was a hell of a fight,” Lambert said. “Both those guys, I think both their stock went up after a fight like that, which is typically something you don’t say after a fight. Both guys proved they had balls of steel and cardio for days. I give credit to both of them.

“You can hate the guy, you can want to see him get merked but after putting on a performance like that and going to war the way he went to war and knowing he broke his jaw early in the fight, how can you not have respect for that?” Lambert added later.

What do you think is next for Colby Covington?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 12/17/2019.