UFC Tampa poster shows new main event between Colby Covington and Joaquin Buckley

Colby Covington is back.

On Dec. 14, Covington makes his return to the cage after a nearly one year absence when he steps in to fight Joaquin Buckley and on Friday the UFC released the official fight poster for the event. Showing both Covington and Buckley, this will be Covington’s 10th UFC fight poster, while this is only the second of Buckley’s career.

Covington is a former interim welterweight champion, having won the the title in 2018 before being stripped a few months later. Most recently Covington lost a unanimous decision to Leon Edwards last December at UFC 296 in his third bid for the undisputed title. Covington was not originally scheduled to compete at this event but stepped in on short notice after Buckley’s original opponent, Ian Machado Garry, was moved to UFC 310 to face Shavkat Rakhmonov.

Spending most of his UFC career at middleweight, Buckley dropped back down to 170 pounds last year. The move seems to be a good one as “New Mansa” has won five in a row, including most recently knocking out Stephen Thompson at UFC 307 in October. Now the No. 9-ranked welterweight in the UFC rankings, Buckley is on the verge of a title shot with a win over Covington.

Check out the UFC Tampa lineup below.

Colby Covington vs. Joaquin Buckley

Amanda Ribas vs. Mackenzie Dern

Cub Swanson vs. Billy Quarantillo

Drakkar Klose vs. Joel Alvarez

Michael Johnson vs. Ottman Azaitar

Miranda Maverick vs. Jamey-Lyn Horth

Dustin Jacoby vs. Vitor Petrino

Piera Rodriguez vs. Josefine Knutsson

Navajo Stirling vs. Tuco Tokkos

Davey Grant vs. Ramon Taveras

Manel Kape vs. Bruno Silva

Sean Woodson vs. Fernando Padilla

Daniel Marcos vs. Adrian Yanez

Miles Johns vs. Felipe Lima