Chael Sonnen reveals Colby Covington will be his assistant coach on TUF 33

By Cole Shelton - February 3, 2025

Chael Sonnen will be coaching TUF 33 opposite Daniel Cormier and he revealed his coaching staff.

Colby Covington, Chael Sonnen

TUF 33 is set to debut on May 27 and will have two legends as coaches, instead of current fighters who are usually booked to fight after the show airs. Ahead of the show airing, Sonnen revealed in an interview that Colby Covington will be one of his assistant coaches.

“The head coach will be Clayton Hires,” Sonnen said to MMAJunkie. “Clayton Hires is my coach. He’s my mentor. He is not my assistant ever. He will be the boss. I will have on the jersey: ‘Clayton’s Team.’ It will consist of me, it will consist of ‘Cowboy’ Steve. He’s going to do what generally Mike Dolce would do in terms of helping these guys with their weight, their nutrition, their strength and conditioning. I would never do an ‘Ultimate Fighter’ without bringing the greatest grappler, Vinny Magalhaes – the last man to beat Gordon Ryan I might add, and he beat Gordon easily. That’s just the truth. It was either 7-0 or 7-1. It was not even close. Vinny never got credit for that. Last human being to defeat Gordon Ryan. And Colby Covington – Colby is going to to come in.”

Chael Sonnen was Colby Covington’s head coach for his last fight against Joaquin Buckley and now he will have the former interim champ as a coach on TUF.

Chael Sonnen praises Colby Covington

After announcing his coaching staff, Chael Sonnen then took the time to praise Colby Covington.

Sonnen says Covington is a great teacher and mentor and expects him to thrive as an assistant coach on TUF 33.

“Colby is such a wonderful mentor to people. This is what people don’t know about him. He does all of this on the side. He gives back, he goes to camps, he goes to college wrestling rooms, he goes to the training sessions, whatever it might be. He has mentored and coached many people. But Colby doesn’t want people knowing that he’s a nice guy, so I’m not going to ruin his gimmick. But he’s going to do a fantastic job,” Sonnen said about Covington.

TUF 33 is set to feature male flyweights and welterweights, so Covington would be able to give good advice and be a good sparring partner for the welterweights.

This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM


Topics:

Chael Sonnen Colby Covington UFC