Colby Covington vs. Leon Edwards as a welterweight title eliminator? Not so fast, Dana White.
Just days after the UFC President suggested that was the fight to make, Colby Covington himself has shot down the potential booking. Speaking to Submission Radio, the former interim champ insisted that he was “not in the Leon Scott charity business.” He also took shots at Jorge Masvidal, after a planned bout between the two, with a proposed Ultimate Fighter coaching gig, failed to materialize.
“[Jorge Masvidal]’s just scared of me. He’s afraid. He doesn’t want to get embarrassed in front of the whole world, he knows how this match-up goes,” Covington told Submission Radio. “He’d be willing to lose to anybody else but me. The UFC offered him a seven-figure payday, an Ultimate Fighter gig, this heated rivalry. The only reason I wanted to fight Jorge ‘Street Judas’ Masvidal, we’ve got a vendetta. It needs to be settled. It’s an easy payday for me, I was willing to go back, but it’s because of the way he was running his mouth.”
Covington took issue with Masvidal’s tough-guy act, with calls for parking lot fights and talk from Masvidal that “Chaos” was fragile. “That’s the only reason I was willing to go backwards, because there was a legitimate personal beef there. This is deeper than just a fight, this is a broken friendship. A complete rivalry now. But what can I do about it? He doesn’t want to fight, he’s scared to fight, he knows what would happen if we fight.”
According to Covington, who got back in the win column in September with a dominant showing against ex-champ Tyron Woodley, he and Masvidal were first set for December. When that didn’t materialize, the focus shifted to the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter, with a planned fight this Spring. None of which appears to be happening.
The UFC’s focus then shifted to Covington vs. Edwards, which is not a fight that interests Covington. “Leon Scott hasn’t earned anything, boys. I’m in the Colby Covington Incorporated championship business. I’m not in the Leon Scott charity business,” he exclaimed. “This isn’t charity hour, man. I’m fighting at the top of the mountain. I’m fighting the best in the world. Did Marty Fakenewsman get a call from the president after his last fight? Oh geez, I wonder why? Because he sucks! He’s irrelevant. I’ve done things no one has ever done in this sport. I’m not doing charity business no more.”
“It’s not my fault this kid [Edwards] hasn’t fought in two years. It’s not my fault this kid – there’s people from England fighting all the time in the pandemic, they’re not scared to fight. So, I’m not doing charity for this guy who hasn’t fought in two years,” said Covington. “He’s irrelevant, he’s beat a bunch of bums, and I’m not doing charity. This isn’t charity hour, this is f*cking championship f*cking pay-per-view hour.”
Asked if it was a hard pass on the Edwards fight, Covington turned his focus to Kamaru Usman calling for a rematch with Masvidal next.
“I would say, talk to Marty Fakenewsman,” Covington suggested. “You’re going to give ‘Street Judas’ Masvidal — the same guy that you were talking on the phone with me and saying he’s the hardest guy in the world to deal with, he’s the next Diaz. He only wants to fight once every two or three years — You’re gonna reward that guy? He hasn’t fought since that fight, a year. And that fight goes the same way every single time. You want to do that same exact outcome again? For what? What’s the point? Six days, six months, six years, that fight’s the same every single time.”
Instead, if he won’t be fighting Masvidal, Covington is clearly eying a rematch with Usman. “The people want to see one fight. They want to see the rematch, ‘Marty Fakenewsman,’ Colby ‘Chaos’ Covington Part 2. Are you f*cking kidding me? It’s a joke,” continued Covington. “It was the biggest corruption in the history of the sport. Are you kidding me? I was destroying him. He got lucky, and he knows that. He got life rafts thrown to him multiple times. Why doesn’t he want to run it back with me? Oh, because I’m the toughest dog in the pack. If I was the easy dog in the pack he’d be coming after me, but he’s not.”
Covington also suggested that he has gotten better since his first fight with Usman. “I feel more confident now in my skills than I ever have in my life. I just know I’m unbeatable right now. All I need is the opportunity. I hope that I can get the opportunity, and they stop passing me up and they take me serious. All Dana has to so is give me the ball, and I guarantee I’m scoring the touchdown.”
