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UFC Newark: Colby Covington and Robbie Lawler Octagon Interviews

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Colby Covington just talked his way into a title shot — and he made sure everyone in Newark heard it.

Colby Covington closed the show at the Prudential Center on August 3, 2019, grinding out a lopsided unanimous decision over former welterweight champion Robbie Lawler across five full rounds. The win was as much about volume and pace as power — Covington mixed early takedowns with a relentless striking output that Lawler simply couldn’t answer. What followed in the Octagon afterward was pure Covington: a victory speech built to enrage the crowd and demand a title shot in the same breath.

• Colby Covington defeated Robbie Lawler via unanimous decision after five rounds at UFC on ESPN 5 in Newark, New Jersey.
• Covington used wrestling takedowns in round one and high-volume striking over the full five rounds to control the fight.
• In his Octagon interview, Covington called himself “on another level” and “the greatest welterweight of all time,” staking his claim as the number-one welterweight contender.

Five Rounds of Volume

There was no finish, and by fight’s end there didn’t need to be one. Covington opened with takedowns to establish his wrestling and spent the rest of the fight walking Lawler down, piling up strikes round after round. Lawler, a former champion known for his durability and one-punch power, never found the counter he needed and absorbed damage in bunches as the fight wore on. The judges’ scorecards reflected exactly what the eye test showed — a wide, comprehensive decision for Covington across all five rounds.

The Silent Majority Speech

Covington has built his entire act around baiting crowds, and Newark got the full treatment. Standing in the center of the cage with the microphone in hand, he taunted the fans directly, invoking his “silent majority” catchphrase and daring the arena to boo louder. It’s the same formula he’s leaned on since turning heel years earlier — needle the crowd, needle the media, needle whoever’s next in line for a shot at his neck of the division.

“I’m on another level. I’m the greatest welterweight of all time.”

That line, delivered seconds after the decision was read, was Covington doing what Covington does — turning a dominant performance into a promo. It’s the kind of soundbite that fuels the same debates covered in pieces like Inappropriate Things Politicians Said On Live TV, where the loudest voice in the room isn’t necessarily wrong, just impossible to ignore.

Staking the Number-One Contender Claim

The victory did exactly what Covington wanted it to do — it made his case for the top of the welterweight rankings impossible to dismiss. A five-round beatdown of a former champion is the kind of resume line that promotions can’t argue around, regardless of how much noise a fighter makes on the microphone. Whether the UFC brass loved his interview or not, the performance in the cage backed up every word of it.

Lawler, for his part, has been through wars with nearly every relevant name in the division over the better part of a decade, and this loss doesn’t erase that resume — it just adds another chapter to a career built on absorbing punishment and giving plenty back. For Covington, the after-party talk was never really about Lawler. It was about who’s standing across the cage from him next, and after five rounds like that in Newark, that’s a conversation the rest of the welterweight division can’t avoid.