Colby Covington has gone from being a teammate of Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier, to being their enemies.
Covington hasn’t been afraid to push the envelope when it comes to his trash talk. With his MAGA shtick in full tilt, Covington has blasted several fighters from welterweight champion Kamaru Usman to light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones. No one appears to be safe from Covington’s banter, not even his former friend Masvidal.
Covington Discusses Falling Out With Masvidal & Poirier
MMAFighting.com‘s Damon Martin spoke to Covington, who admitted he took issue with Masvidal trying to cut in front of him for a welterweight title shot.
“That tweet came from Jorge trying to get in the way of my money and I take that money very serious,” Covington told MMA Fighting. “That’s food on the table for my mom, my dad, the life they never had, my family. I come from a very broke background and now he’s trying to mess with my money and my business so now you’re a competitor.
“Now you’re in my sights. That’s been a long time coming. People think we’ve been friends recently but that friendship ended a long time ago.”
Covington went on to claim that Poirier’s beef with him stems from predicting Khabib Nurmagomedov’s UFC 242 victory.
“That’s the only reason Dustin is all mad at me and calling me a sellout because I picked against him in the fight,” Covington said. “But how does that make me a sellout? If anything I bought in and he tapped out. I’m giving the people America’s pick of the week. I don’t want to let the people down. That’s why I’m the people’s champion because I bless people and make their bank accounts great again. So if he’s mad about my opinion, I’m sorry, you could have proved me wrong. You can prove my opinion wrong.
“I proved his opinion wrong. Dustin picked against me, he’s best friends with Robbie Lawler and he picked Robbie and he wanted Robbie to beat me. Did I get mad? Did I make excuses? No, I went out there and proved him wrong and beat Robbie Lawler’s ass every single round and set a UFC strikes record. He could have done the same but no, he wants to make excuses ‘Colby picked against me, he’s a sellout’.”
What’s next for Covington is unclear. He was offered a welterweight title bout with Usman for UFC 244 on Nov. 2, but negotiations fell apart. It’s unknown whether or not the UFC will try to book that fight again for a different event or go in a new direction.
