Colby Covington has been removed from the UFC fighter roster, and the promotion’s official website now lists the former interim welterweight champion as retired. UFC Roster Watch said Covington was among four fighters taken off the roster, with Mayra Bueno Silva, Brad Riddell and Nathan Fletcher also removed.
The move comes after Covington was taken out of the UFC rankings in April, ending a run that had kept him in the top-15 until last month. The 36-year-old joined the UFC in 2014, fought 17 times inside the Octagon and finished with a 12-5 record, one that included wins over Robbie Lawler, Tyron Woodley, Jorge Masvidal and Demian Maia.
Covington’s most meaningful breakthrough came in 2018, when he defeated Rafael dos Anjos to win the interim UFC welterweight title. His last victory came against Masvidal in March 2022, and his final fight was a December 2024 loss to Joaquin Buckley by TKO.
That timeline helps explain why the roster move landed now. Covington had remained a fixture in the UFC’s welterweight division for years, but the latest listing points to a clean break rather than a temporary shuffle. Even so, the timing is not total shutdown: he still has an RAF wrestling match with Chris Weidman scheduled for the end of this month, and he previously beat Luke Rockhold and Dillon Danis in that promotion.
For Covington, the UFC exit closes a long run that began in 2014 and reached its peak with the interim belt in 2018. What happens next in combat sports may depend less on his UFC past than on whether the retirement label on the official site proves to be the final word.
