A fight between top welterweight contenders Ian Garry and Colby Covington has been targeted by the UFC for their UFC Tampa Bay fight night card on December 14th, sources with inside knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Sporting News' Val Dewar.
The fight was reportedly agreed to verbally on multiple occasions, but as-of-yet unknown issues on the Covington side have caused the fight to be off and on multiple times, thus far preventing the athletes from actually making it to the cage to fight each other.
Several other fights have already been booked for the UFC Tampa Bay event, such as ranked contender fights between Mackenzie Dern vs Amanda Ribas and Dustin Jacoby vs Vitor Petrino. However, the promotion has thus far not announced a main event.
Clearly a fight between the number six welterweight contender, former interim champ Colby Covington, and number seven, the undefeated Irishman Ian Garry, would fill that main event slot perfectly.
Despite being from California originally, Covington has ties to the area, having lived in Florida since 2011 when he was recruited to American Top Team, before moving to MMA Masters following drama which saw him asked to leave ATT.
'Chaos' lost his last fight as a title challenger against then-champ Leon Edwards. A fight against the rising Garry, who has won eight straight UFC fights since signing in 2021, is a big chance for him to rebound.
Covington is ten years older than his potential foe, so like several other fights in the division recently, this may represent a changing of the guard in the welterweight ranks, unless Covington can come out on top.
As for Garry, a win would be the biggest of his career and would put him in spitting distance of the welterweight title, currently held by Belal Muhammad. Although Shavkat Rakhmonov is presumed to be next in line for a title shot, Ian Garry could stake his own claim with an impressive performance, or at least set himself up for a number one contender bout.
