A high-stakes matchup against former American Top Team teammate, Jorge Masvidal may have elluded Colby Covington this time around, however, that hasn’t switched the former interim welterweight champion’s attention from a possible matchup with the BMF champion in the future.
Yet to feature since UFC Vegas 11 back in September, former interim gold holder, Covington returned to winning-ways in a main event tilt against former undisputed best, Tyron Woodley — scoring a one-sided win with an eventual fifth round rib injury resulting in a TKO victory for the Colvis native after a dominant wrestling display.
In the months since, Covington seemed to be on the cusp of a high-stakes title-eliminator against Masvidal, with a potential coaching clash between the two featuring on the upcoming return of The Ultimate Fighter.
Ultimately, those plans failed to come to fruition, with Covington remarking the Masvidal had turned down a lucrative seven-figure payday against him — which would see the two square off in the main event of a pay-per-view event this summer at TUF finale.
For Masvidal, the Floridian will headline UFC 261 on April 24th. — in tandem with the return of fans to the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida as he rematches Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title, having dropped a one-sided unanimous decision loss to the streaking titleholder on ‘Fight Island’ at UFC 261.
Covington’s options at 170-pounds seem to be hugely limited at this moment in time, with the likes of Gilbert Burns, Stephen Thompson, or even Vicente Luque coming as the most realistic next booking for him — particularly with the recent pairing of Leon Edwards and Nate Diaz on May 15th.
Speaking with The Schmo recently, Covington claimed that a future matchup with Masvidal is the “biggest” money fight the promotion could put together.
“I don’t like to hold out,” Covington said. “But we’re already this deep, I was waiting [for] five (or), six months, you know — with the promise from the UFC and from Dana White — he was even saying to the media, ‘Hey, Colby’s (Covington) fighting Jorge (Masvidal) next.’ after I finished (Tyron) Woodley, and he was — that was the fight to make. Me vs. Jorge. It’s the biggest money fight the UFC can make.“
“It’s a bigger title fight matchup, it’s a bigger fight than they’ve ever had in the history of the company,” Covington explained. “You know, just with how close we were as friends and we were in each other’s corner every step of the way in the UFC, and now we hate each other, we hate each other’s guts. You know, he’s said some things to me at our old gym (American Top Team), you know — I had to leave my old gym and I’m thankful that happened, ’cause I’ve better coaches at a better gym now.“
As far as Covington’s concerned there’s a certain beef that comes with the matchup of himself and Masvidal — and it needs to be settled.
“This beef needs to be settled, Schmo — he’s talked a big game, said in the media to you, ‘Oh, it’s on-site, I’m gonna wreck Colby’s face, I’m gonna break all these bones in his face, Colby’s fragile.’ When are you gonna walk that talk? You talk reckless, but there’s only one guy walking the talk and that’s me, I talk the talk and I walk the walk.“
