Daniel Cormier heaps praise at Colby Covington for performance against Robbie Lawler

Count UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier among the fans of Colby Covington’s performance on Saturday afternoon against Robbie Lawler in the main event of UFC on ESPN 5.

One of the most respected fighters in the game, Cormier took to his social media to praise Covington for the ridiculous pace he set for 25 minutes in the cage against Lawler. Covington won the fight via lopsided unanimous decision.

Love him or hate him @ColbyCovMMA is a real problem. 500 strikes and 20 takedown attempts over 5 rounds is just insanity!!!

— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) August 3, 2019

“Love him or hate him Colby Covington is a real problem. 500 strikes and 20 takedown attempts over 5 rounds is just insanity!!!”

That Covington would hear this sort of praise from Cormier is surprising in the fact that Covington is one of the ‘bad boys’ of MMA while Cormier is one of the ‘good guys.’ But at the same time, it’s perhaps not that surprising as Cormier clearly respects the incredible wrestling skills and cardio of Covington. Cormier’s old mantra “embrace the grind” couldn’t hold truer to the performance Covington put on against Lawler on Saturday afternoon.

With the win over Lawler, Covington is expected to command a title shot against UFC welterweight Kamaru Usman in the coming months. There’s a good chance that title fight could take place this November at UFC 244 in New York City. To their part, both Covington and Usman went at it hard on the UFC on ESPN 5 post-fight show. When this fight does happen, it will be one of the biggest and most-anticipated grudge matches of the year.

As for Cormier, the UFC heavyweight champion returns to action later this month when he takes on Stipe Miocic in a rematch at UFC 241. Cormier has said in the past this will be one of the last few fights of his Hall of Fame career. On the same card, Nate Diaz returns to the Octagon after three years away to take on Anthony Pettis in a much-hyped fight.

What did you think about Colby Covington’s performance against Robbie Lawler?