Colby Covington Believes Charles Oliveira’s Win Over Dustin Poirier Hurt Khabib Nurmagomedov’s Legacy
Colby Covington believes Charles Oliveira’s submission win over Dustin Poirier hurts Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s legacy.
‘Do Bronx’ continued to turn heads as he was able to best Poirier after things seemed to be going south in the first round of their fight at UFC 269. Oliveira was then able to dominate Poirier up until the moment he made Poirier tap out with a beautiful rear naked choke. Going into the fight, many fans and media members touted ‘The Diamond’ as the best fighter in the division. It was Oliveira’s first title defense and he defended it the same way he won it, with true heart and determination after a rough first round.
For Poirier, he had reached the mountain top once again just to unfortunately fall short to a superior grappler. Poirier had lost to ‘The Eagle’ a couple years prior by a rear naked choke, when attempting to unifying his interim championship to become the undisputed lightweight champ.
Colby Covington made an appearance on ‘Submission Radio’ to voice his opinion on how the win for Oliveira effected Nurmagomedov’s legacy
“It definitely kinda delegitimizes his (Khabib) legacy. He never really fought a high, high-level wrestler that could challenge him, that was good, in both areas of striking and wrestling, and submissions and defensive wrestling. So, you know, there’s always been doubts about Khabib’s legacy. He had an interesting route and he took some time off in-between his career. He got good matchups, you know, people that didn’t know how to wrestle. Even, a lot of people thought that he lost to a guy I used to train with all the time, Tibau, Gleison Tibau. He won a split decision over him but a lot of people thought he lost that fight.
“I definitely think that kinda puts a dampener into Khabib’s legacy. That guy’s (Poirier) going out there and getting submitted just like you did to him; the same exact way. So how would that matchup go with him and the Brazilian?” (Transcribed by MMANews)
While it may not negatively effect Nurmagomedov’s accomplishments, it does boost Oliveira’s legacy. If Oliveira keeps rolling through the division, while defending his title against the same guys Khabib beat, he may have a legitimate case to be considered the lightweight GOAT. After it’s all said and done, his latest run could end up being better than Nurmagomedov.
With all that being said, Nurmagomedov barely ever lost a round during his entire run of the division. His dominance stretched for years and regardless of the competition was undoubtedly the most dominant fighter the division has ever seen, and possibly the most dominant fighter in UFC history.
A fight between ‘Do Bronx’ and ‘The Eagle’ is a matchup made in heaven, but we may have to settle for Oliveira vs Islam Makhachev.
Do you think Colby Covington has a point?
