Ian Machado Garry vs. Colby Covington in the works for UFC Tampa main event

The UFC is looking for an impressive main event to round out their final broadcast ESPN card of the year, and they may have one … if they’re able to get Colby Covington to agree to it.

Ian Machado Garry has been chasing a fight with Covington for over a year after “Chaos” started pumping out videos attacking Garry’s wife Layla. But while Colby has no problem taking shots at her on Instagram, he’s been extremely hesitant to sign a contract to fight her husband.

According to The Sporting News, the UFC wants Covington vs. Garry to headline UFC Tampa Bay on December 14th, but are still waiting on Covington to confirm. Covington fights out of Florida and headlining Amelie Arena in Tampa would be a big deal … but even that hasn’t pushed Colby to jump on the opportunity to fight “legitimate cuck” Garry.

There’s no doubt that Ian wants the fight. He pushed hard to get the Colby locked in for UFC 303, but ended up having to face Michael “Venom” Page instead. He’d end up grinding out a decision win against the tricky striking specialist, moving his record to 14-0 (8-0). The win also moved him to No. 7 in the welterweight rankings, one spot above No. 6 Covington.

And that’s where we’ve stood for the last three months. Covington has previously said a foot injury suffered against Leon Edwards back in December 2023 is what’s keeping him out of action. That was his official reasoning for missing UFC 303, but fighting down the rankings against a much younger opponent is just not something many fighters want to do. And UFC Fight Nights, even ‘proper ESPN’ Fight Nights, are still below UFC PPVs when it comes to attention (and sponsorship pay).

At 36 and 2-3 over the last five years, Covington is probably hoping for a few more big fights and maybe one more kick at the title shot can. He’s never had an issue waiting around until he gets the match-up he prefers, as his glacial one-fight-per-year schedule shows. And right now we are hearing that “Chaos” wants to fight Jorge Masvidal again on in the co-main of a big pay-per-view in 2025.

That’s “probably not” going to happen.

UFC Tampa has seen a number of fights added over the past weeks, including a strawweight rematch between Mackenzie Dern and Amanda Ribas, Manel Kape vs. Bruno Gustavo da Silva, Tracy Cortez vs. Miranda Maverick, and Cub Swanson vs. Billy Quarantillo. We’ll keep you up to date on whether to add Ian Garry vs. Colby Covington to that list.