Don't look now, but the welterweight division has a new top-10 contender.
Colby "Chaos" Covington scored the biggest win of his career on Saturday, outpointing veteran Dong Hyun Kim at UFC Fight Night 111 in Kallang, Singapore.
Kim entered Saturday's contest with 13 UFC wins (tied for fifth-most in company history among welterweights) and the No. 7 ranking. None of that seemed to matter to Covington, who went after him from the opening bell.
Relentless wrestling has long been Covington's calling card and he didn't deviate from that strategy. An accomplished grappler in his own right, Kim did what he could to hold Covington off, but was eventually taken down twice in Round 1.
When Kim was able to create separation in Round 2, Covington made him pay with straight punches and a flying knee that backed Kim up against the cage:
Chaos lands a nice combo in the 2nd!#UFCSingapore pic.twitter.com/cj7L6zymuz
— UFC_Asia (@UFC_Asia) June 17, 2017
Round 3 offered more of the same, as Covington repeatedly dove in to get his arms around Kim and wrestle him around the Octagon. Kim avoided taking any serious damage, but there was little doubt Covington had outworked him. One of the judges even went so far as to score the bout 30-25 for Covington.
Covington's now won four straight fights to run his UFC record up to 7-1, while Kim's three-fight winning streak has ended.
