Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

Colby Covington wants to clean off the stench of his last performance against Leon Edwards at UFC 296 in December.

It was a particularly rough and uncharacteristic performance for Covington inside the T-Mobile Arena when he competed in his third undisputed UFC title fight. Unable to utilize his patented high-volume pressure wrestling style, “Chaos” was outpointed by the champion Edwards comfortably throughout five rounds en route to a unanimous decision loss. One that he, unsurprisingly, still thinks he should have won.

Covington, 35, stated in media appearances afterward that he suffered a broken foot early in the fight. How early? Try the first kick thrown, according to the Oregon native, who shared an image of a foot X-ray with Submission Radio yesterday, claiming to have fractured the medial cuneiform bone in his left foot.

Instagram: @submissionradio

“I couldn’t plant or explode off it to use the wrestling and pressure I planned to use,” Covington said. “I didn’t want to disclose this information until I had the X-rays back home, but here they are.

“I knew straight away it was bad. It was the first kick I threw, it landed right on his elbow. He was in orthodox so I kind of got a little overzealous and I wanted to rip a high kick to his orthodox side because I didn’t know if he’d be defensively sound from southpaw. So, the first kick I threw, a high kick, it was kind of like a middle kick, it landed on his elbow.

“Haters will still find a way to hate on me for fighting 25 minutes on one leg while landing over 100 more strikes than Leon,” he continued. “But you know what, my haters are so broke they can’t even pay attention so f*** them.”

For the sake of clarity and simple statistical math or research, Covington did not outstrike Edwards by 100 strikes or double Edwards’ strike total. The American did manage to outstrike “Rocky” in total strikes over their five-round affair, but it was 109 to 65 per UFC Stats. 54 of which came from Covington in the lone round he won in the fight when he took down Edwards in round five and controlled him for three minutes and three seconds.

Ultimately, Covington found more success as the fight went on but it was never enough to overcome his claimed injury.

“It was a panic-type mode,” Covington said of how he reacted to the injury. “You’re like, ‘Oh, f***. I’m compromised.’ You know your foot’s hurt, you know? I could feel it throbbing and the fire really started to hit my foot and start to feel that excruciating type of pain.

“I remember going back to the end of the first round and I always sit down, I want to hear my coaches and just breathe. That first round, I’m just chilling, I’m doing what I love for a living. Sit and kind of breathe and relax until the next round. I didn’t even sit because it was throbbing so bad I’m like, ‘F***, if I sit down right now, it might be so much pain I might not be able to stand back up off the stool.’ There was just a lot of panic at the end of the first round. Like f***. I couldn’t listen to my coaches, everything just felt like it was zoning out because all I could care about was my foot and not being able to put any weight on it.”

Performance-wise, Covington was dramatically more patient and cautious with his approach, and allowed Edwards to control the pace much more than expected. The fact that Covington’s left foot was the compromised one, which he puts all his weight on to explode in most offensive situations, it made the fight all the more difficult.

Next on deck is a targeted summer return for Covington. The one-time interim titlist says he’ll be ready for that timeframe and wants to prove why he is still the very best welterweight in the world despite alternating wins and losses in his last five fights.

Who does he want to fight next? There are a couple of options Covington is keen on.

“If he can get through the bus boy [Geoff Neal], and UFC deems that to be the biggest and best business the UFC can do in the welterweight division, then let’s do it,” Covington said of a fight with Ian Machado Garry. “UFC knows what Colby ‘Chaos’ Covington is about.

“There’s a lot of options. We got Gilbert [Burns] coming up [at UFC 299]. That fat lesbian just like Conor [McGregor] said. He’s coming up in March. If he beats that other kid that he’s fighting, whatever the scrub’s name is [Jack Della Maddalena] then that’s a possibility. I think [Stephen] ‘Wonderboy’ [Thompson] makes the most sense. The ultimate nice guy vs. the ultimate bad guy. He’s had a lot of things to say, that fight makes the most sense.”

TOP STORIES

Hiccup. Dustin Poirier talks ‘miscommunication’ on Benoit Saint Denis fight, reveals original matchup date

Boxing. Rampage Jackson believes Shannon Briggs is underestimating him, vows to ‘put my fist in his motherf****** mouth’

Intentions. Ilia Topuria plans to ‘dominate’ Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298, wants Conor McGregor next

Caution. Mark Zuckerberg’s MMA passion triggers warning to investors about potential for ‘serious injury and death’

Beef. Raquel Pennington wants Julianna Pena fight in late summer: ‘I’m excited to finally punch her ass in the mouth’

VIDEO STEW

The MMA Hour.

Catching up with Urijah Faber.

Free fights.

Onward.

Champ camp.

Nightmare in NYC.

Historic cancellations.

LISTEN UP

On To the Next One. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alex K. Lee discuss matches to make after UFC Vegas 85.

MORNING MUSIC

This one gets today’s nod simply for the name alone. Reminds me of how Glover Teixeira vs. Fabio Maldonado felt to watch. The real ones remember.

Okay, this was a little too filthy for me not to do our first two-fer. Start the Tuesday FAST and ferocious, friends.

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Snow day.

Matchmaking.

Questions.

Goals.

Damn, Mikey.

Catch ‘em all.

Praise.

Training mood.

Girl fighter.

Slappin’ da bass.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Christian Leroy Duncan (9-1) vs. Claudio Ribeiro (11-4); UFC Vegas 87, March 2

Leah McCourt (8-3) vs. Sinead Kavanagh (9-6); Bellator 302, March 22

Victoria Dudakova (8-0) vs. Melissa Gatto (8-2-2); UFC Atlantic City, March 30

FINAL THOUGHTS

I don’t see any problem with any of the possible matchups Colby mentioned. Garry is the best-case scenario in all aspects though.

Thanks for reading!

EXIT POLL

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @DrakeRiggs_ on Twitter and let him know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Instagram and like us on Facebook.