Jorge Masvidal and a sparring partner have reacted to a new video that Colby Covington has released of Dustin Poirier.
Covington had been talking about a sparring video he had of Poirier, who was preparing for a 2019 title clash against Khabib Nurmagomedov. In the video, Poirier is seen knocking his sparring partner down and declaring, “and new!” Covington believes this exposes that Poirier isn’t the “good guy” that he says he is.
Masvidal, who trains with Poirier at American Top Team, stood up for “The Diamond” in a Twitter post.
“Why don’t you post the video of Dustin Poirier dropping you with a body shot? Always hating on people with power #supernecessary.”
The sparring partner in the video was Titan FC vet, Felipe Douglas. He told MMAFighting.com that he doesn’t believe Poirier did anything wrong.
“It was an intense sparring session, and things like that can happen in sparring. There are some people saying I wasn’t wearing gear, but there was no reason to wear training gear, because Dustin trains well, he’s not mean. He hits hard like a fight and caught me and knocked me down. The cornerman took me off the cage and didn’t let me go back.
“As far as his celebration, people saying he was making fun – that’s the mindset of a guy that is fighting for a belt. I didn’t consider it disrespectful. I don’t do it, but that’s his mindset, envisioning the fight. He was about to fight for the belt, that’s his life.”
Covington has been known to ruffle feathers even in-house. This is what led to his departure from ATT. While still teammates with Masvidal and Poirier, Covington hurled verbal jabs at both men. He even took aim at Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Poirier is set to meet Conor McGregor a third time this Saturday night (July 10) in the main event of UFC 264.
