A UFC veteran claims Colby Covington passed on a clear opportunity to fight him.
Covington was last seen in action at UFC Tampa in December, where he suffered a lopsided third-round TKO loss via doctor’s stoppage at the hands of Joaquin Buckley. The setback added to his recent struggles, as “Chaos” has now lost four of his last six fights since 2019.
Since then, the former interim UFC welterweight champion appears to have shifted his focus toward his live streaming venture on KICK and has shown minimal intent to resume his fighting career anytime soon.
However, according to Michael Chiesa, Covington had a clear chance to face him following their stint as rival assistant coaches on Season 33 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF). The prospect of a showdown between the two began to gain traction, especially after head coaches Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen publicly backed the matchup once filming wrapped.
In a video posted to his YouTube channel this March, Covington dismissed the idea of facing “Maverick” and bluntly stated he had no interest in fighting someone who isn’t ranked in the top 15.
During a recent interview with MMA on SiriusXM, Chiesa revealed that while filming TUF, Covington had personally agreed to fight him next—but later backed out.
The 37-year-old Colorado native didn’t hold back, criticizing Covington for his lack of commitment to the sport. Chiesa went on to assert that Covington’s focus on fighting only top-tier opponents will ultimately lead to his downfall.
At the end of the day, I think that he screwed up a really good opportunity," Chiesa said. "I'm hearing the stories of how he handles his fighting career at this point in time. He has said it himself, streamers make more money than fighters. I think he's aspiring to be a streamer more than he is a fighter. I know that he doesn't train the way he used to because I'm talking to people that train at MMA Masters, and it's like you want to fight for the title, you only want to fight ranked guys. Buddy, if you're training the way that I'm hearing you're training, it's only going to get worse. So why didn't you take the opportunity to fight me, in a main event, against a guy who worst-case scenario is just going to snatch your neck and choke you? Now Colby just fumbled a situation where he's probably going to have to fight a Michael Morales, he's going to have to fight a guy that's going to do what Joaquin Buckley did to him. So to me, he fumbled a great opportunity for us to do a fight for The Ultimate Fighter, for these fighters.
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“Maverick” last competed at UFC 310 in December, where he secured a dominant third-round submission victory over Max Griffin, extending his winning streak to two. Chiesa is set to face Court McGee at UFC Atlanta on June 14, with the showdown scheduled to take place at State Farm Arena in Georgia.