With the holiday season looming (it’ll be here before you know it, don’t worry,) the time is near for gifts and surprises galore. In the spirit of giving, MMA‘s top promotion, the UFC, has an early Christmas present for its fans this year. Even better, you won’t need to wait until Dec. 25 to unwrap this gift from your tree.
On Dec. 14, the UFC holds its finale for 2024 from Amalie Arena in Tampa, the home rink of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning. One of the promotion’s most explosive personalities will stage a comeback 363 days in the making in the new-look UFC Tampa main event of the evening.
Covington Headlines UFC 2024 Finale Against Buckley
No. 6 contender Colby Covington (17-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) will square off against No. 9 contender Joaquin Buckley (20-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) in the UFC Tampa main event. As with all UFC main events, this one will be an advertised maximum of five rounds at five minutes per round to close the show.
#UFCTampa has a NEW main event 👏@ColbyCovMMA vs @NewMansa94 is ON for December 14th! pic.twitter.com/5zpibGbLKe
— UFC (@ufc) November 16, 2024
The news broke late Friday night on the eve of tonight’s UFC 309. Subsequent to the Covington/Buckley contest becoming official, the promotion revealed a new co-main event for the Dec. 7 UFC 310. That evening, unbeaten Ian Machado Garry (15-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC), who was briefly tied to UFC Tampa the next weekend, will square off in a five-round affair at welterweight against fellow undefeated competitor Shavkat Rakhmonov (18-0 MMA, 15-0 UFC).
Covington Coming in on Lengthy Layoff
Colby Covington hasn’t been too active inside the famed Octagon of late. Dating back to 2020, the one nicknamed “Chaos” has only been in the cage a total of four times, going 2-2.
His last win in that stretch occurred on March 5, 2022 during UFC 272 by way of unanimous decision versus Jorge Masvidal in the main event of the evening. Lengthy hiatuses have become habitual for Covington.
Aside from the four-month gap between fights from November of 2021 to March of 2022, walks to the Octagon are now only annual events for the onetime UFC Interim Welterweight Champion. These long layoffs, coupled with the fact that Covington accepted the fight on roughly one month’s notice begs a salient question:
How ready is he for the new UFC Tampa main event? We’ll know the answers soon enough.
Joaquin Buckley With Quick Turnaround for UFC Tampa Main Event
In the other corner, Joaquin Buckley has been the more active contestant of the two in the new UFC Tampa main event. When the cage door shuts on Dec. 14, only 70 days will have elapsed between contests for the 170-lb. division’s No. 9 contender.
2024 has been quite the busy year for Joaquin Buckley. Counting the UFC Tampa main event, he’ll have fought four times in roughly eight and a half months this year, as part of an ongoing five-fight winning streak.
Activity has been a recurring theme for Joaquin Buckley over recent years. Aside from making a single appearance in MMA during 2019 after departing from Bellator MMA, Buckley has fought at least twice in each of the last five years, including a hectic stretch in 2020.
In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic forcing MMA to come to a complete stop for several months that year, Buckley made the walk to the cage four times in 2020 before having another four-fight stretch in 2022.
Buckley Weighs In on Opponent Change
Saturday morning, Joaquin Buckley offered up his thoughts on the new-look UFC Tampa main event, supplying some theatrics in a video posted to X (formerly known as Twitter.)
“Man, they took my main event,” Buckley said, mock sobbing. “No more Buck vs. Cuck. They gave that man a shot to fight for the interim title. That’s some old bull, and now they want to give me Colby Covington. He ain’t won a fight since Obama was in office, man, but it’s all good, though. Buck gonna be all right. Make sure y’all check me out Dec. 14 in Tampa Bay. We’ve got another knockout to get, but damn! Buck vs. Cuck would have been a good-ass fight man.”
— COMBAT (@C0MB4TT) November 16, 2024
The video ended with the promotional image for the new UFC Tampa main event being displayed full-screen to the strains of The Fray’s 2005 hit single How to Save A Life. Given Buckley’s track record of hunting for the finish (none of his 20 career wins have required the use of the judges’ scorecards), the UFC Tampa main event looks to be a winnable affair for the ninth-ranked contender at 170 lbs.
Final Thoughts
At the core, after the shuffling of the card, the Dec. 14 main event at Amalie Arena is the story of two competitors at a crossroads in their respective careers. While Covington is scheduled to make the walk for the 22nd time as a professional in the UFC Tampa main event, will the one-year hiatus between fights come back to haunt “Chaos” in the long run?
