Colby Covington claims that his rumored fight with Jorge Masvidal has not been finalized because Masvidal is refusing to fight him.
Colby Covington has publicly lobbied for a fight against Jorge Masvidal for several months now. And it wasn’t long ago that Dana White also expressed an interest in making this fight happen. So why has the fight not been signed or announced despite being rumored for several months? According to Covington, there is only one side to blame.
“I’m good to go on my end,” Covington told Submission Radio. “I’m ready to go. I gave them my verbal (agreement), and I’m a man of my word. I’m gonna show up and do what I do best, that’s win and fight hard, (and) put on a show for the fans around the world.”
“Getting Jorge ‘Street Judas’ Masvidal on board is a whole other story,” Covington said. “The guy, I mean, he’s got no options, and he thinks he’s gonna fight Conor (McGregor), he wants the easy fight with the ‘soy boy’ Nate Diaz. The guy is desperate right now. You don’t want to fight the No. 1 guy in the world? I’m the No. 1 guy in the world.”
Colby Covington is indeed ranked #1 in the welterweight rankings, with Masvidal currently occupying the #4 position. At the UFC 251 post-fight press conference, Masvidal did address a potential fight with Covington, stating that he was not interested in the fight because he did better against reigning champion Kamaru Usman than Covington did. Masvidal stated that because he went five rounds against Usman on short notice while Covington was finished by the champion, that proves that Covington is not on his level.
This public dismissal of the fight by Masvidal lends credence to Covington’s claim that the holdup for finalizing a fight between the two is on Masvidal’s end, but Covington says that Masvidal’s reason given to the UFC brass was quite different than the reason he gave the public.
“There’s a reason he doesn’t want to fight me, because he’s experienced this fight before,” Covington said. “He knows how this fight plays out, and he doesn’t want to get embarrassed in front of the whole world. So, he’s in hiding right now.
“They (UFC) said it was gonna be a tough task because ‘he doesn’t want to fight you,’” Covington continued. “They pretty much told me that he plain and simple told them that he doesn’t like the style match-up. You’re in the UFC fighting the best fighters in the world, you claim to want to be the best in the world, and you don’t like a style match-up? Like, what is this, The Real Divas of Atlanta? What are we doing? I thought we were the Ultimate Fighting Championship, not the Ultimate Feelings Championship. That’s why he’s never been the Ultimate Fighting Champion. He’s been nothing more than a broken mediocre fighting champion.”
What are your thoughts on Covington’s claim that Masvidal is refusing to fight him due to not liking the stylistic matchup?
