MIAMI – Colby Covington no longer sees the appeal of fighting Jorge Masvidal.
The best friends-turned rivals seemingly have been on a collision course for a while, but it appears Covington (16-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC) has moved on from the matchup. Masvidal (35-15 MMA, 12-8 UFC), who had a spectacular 2019 en route to capturing the “BMF” title, has since lost back-to-back bouts to UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, most recently suffering a second-round knockout at UFC 261.
So with Masvidal’s current losing skid, Covington thinks “Gamebred” has lost his aura and, as a result, the anticipation of a fight between them has fizzled.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Covington told MMA Junkie. “I’m not gonna have people downplay my victory if I beat him. I’ve already owned his soul for the last 10 years when we trained together at American Top Team. You can go look on the internet, I used to hold him down in our kitchen and just pat on his face, ‘Get up Masvidal, get up, do something,’ and he couldn’t do anything. So he knows I’m his daddy, I’m his rightful owner, and there’s a reason he ducked the fight for so long. He doesn’t want to fight me.
“He knows I own the keys to his soul, so I don’t know. If the UFC really wants to do it, I’m the people’s champ, and I’m America’s champ for a reason. I’ll do what the people want, what the UFC want. I want to put the biggest and best fights in the organization, but I don’t feel like he’s the biggest and best fight in the organization. The guy has almost 20 losses on his record, he’s nothing more than a journeyman at this point, so his 10 seconds of fame are up, and there’s nothing for me to gain anymore.”
After UFC president Dana White declared Covington the No. 1 contender, the former interim welterweight champ has no intention of looking back. Although Usman has been rather dismissive of a potential rematch, Covington says it’s title shot or bust.
“I’ve already beat him up and knocked him out multiple times in the gym. I have nothing to prove against him,” Covington said of Masvidal. “I want to go out there, beat ‘Marty Fakenewsman,’ solidify myself as the greatest welterweight in the world, and go on to solidify myself as the greatest welterweight of all time. I have unfinished business.”