A matchup seemingly tailor-made for box office success is still yet to materialize, and Colby Covington is putting the blame on his adversary.
For a while now, Covington has been tied to a grudge match with his former friend and training partner, Jorge Masvidal. But the two have yet to cross paths inside the octagon.
Covington and Masvidal competed in high-profile bouts in 2020, with Covington defeating another longtime rival, Tyron Woodley, and Masvidal falling short in his attempt to wrest the UFC welterweight championship from Kamar Usman.
Even though the time may seem right, Covington told Submission Radio that there has been no word regarding negotiations on fighting Masvidal.
“I’ve wanted the fight since day one, everybody knows that,” Covington said (transcription via Submission Radio’s Denis Shkuratov). “[UFC President] Dana White knows that. I was on board ever since I finished Woodley. And we’re talking about a Tyron Woodley who’s levels above ‘Street Judas’ Masvidal. He’s accomplished way more than Street Judas Masvidal. He won a real world title. Tyron Woodley was a real champion.”
“Where’s he at now, guys?” Covington continued. “Now he’s nowhere to be found. Now he’s gonna get paid seven figures. He’s gonna get paid all this money to go fight in the octagon and now he’s gonna have someone who can pay his hospital bills, the UFC, after I’m done with him. Where is this guy? The so-called ‘BMF?’ You guys all believe he’s some BMF, I don’t even know what that means. All it means is Broken Mediocre Fighter. The guy’s a joke. He’s got double digit losses, he’s a complete bum. There’s a reason he doesn’t want to fight me, because he’s experienced this fight before, he knows how this fight plays out and he doesn’t want to get embarrassed in front of the whole world. He’s in hiding right now.”
According to Covington, the plan was for a fight with Masvidal to happen in either late 2020 or early 2021. He believes Masvidal is hunting for fights with proven box office stars Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz rather than take on a top-5 welterweight contender.
It’s a situation that has Covington scratching his head, given that their history could make things easy for the UFC marketing team.
“We’re the guys that have this intense rivalry, we used to be best friends,” Covington said. “This is a blockbuster pay-per-view fight. There’s not a heated rivalry like this I don’t think in the history of the UFC. We were in each other’s corners throughout our UFC careers, best friends for 10 years, hung out every single day, training partners, and now all of a sudden bitter enemies and we want to kill each other. Except there’s only one guy who’s actually going to show up to kill the other guy and that’s me because all he does is talk. …
“Where’s he at now? Now you haven’t heard a peep out of him. He’s completely silent. I think it’s going to show the fans the truth, and he’s gonna lose all that street cred. All that street cred for being a badass motherf*cker, for being a street king and a street fighter, and just the baddest dude who would show up at any time, he’s losing all that credibility by the day, because he’s nowhere to be found.”
Covington repeatedly said that, to his knowledge, it’s Masvidal who has refused to take the fight and is holding out for “astronomical amounts of money that he’s never gonna get and that he’s not even worth.” He estimates it’s been two months since he’s heard any update on Masvidal’s situation.
One reason Covington thinks there could be a hold-up is the COVID-19 restrictions that have forced the UFC to hold shows with no fans in attendance on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi and at UFC APEX in Las Vegas. A matchup between Covington and Masvidal could potentially sell out a venue under normal circumstances.
“I want this fight to get going,” Covington said. “I even proposed to Dana for me and Jorge to do it in American Airlines Arena in Miami. His biggest thing was, ‘Hey, we gotta see if we can get fans back into the arena, because this type of gate for this fight, it’s gonna sell out, it’s gonna be a massive hit.’ So I think they’re waiting to see logistics-wise where they could do this fight at. I don’t know, maybe they’re looking at doing The Ultimate Fighter. Who knows?
“I don’t know what plans they have, but I’m just training everyday and I’m here for the fans. I fight for the fans, I fight for the company. I’m ready to fight tomorrow. I’m ready to fight next weekend. The UFC knows when they need me I’ll be ready to fight. It’s just a matter of getting Street Judas on board.”
Covington said the TUF suggestion is just that for now, a suggestion, and that nothing official has been discussed on that front. However, should the UFC decide to assign Covington and Masvidal as coaches and stick them in front of the cameras for a few weeks of filming, “Chaos” is all for it.
“It would be an instant hit, it would be drama TV at its best,” he said. “It would be comical. People would love it. I’d be looking like a standup comic just hitting him with truth the whole time, and he’d be losing his mind. He can’t control his feelings. I can control my feelings. I’m a true professional and businessman, but I know him, he’s a street thug. He’s a typical kid that likes to sucker punch people in the streets, because he doesn’t want to fight them fair, cause he knows he’s a b*tch, he knows he’s not a real man. He can’t win a fight fighting someone fair, so he’s gotta cheap shot them. It would be a great season. I think the fans would love it. Obviously, we’d see lots of chicks, because I’m always hanging out with chicks. I’m working on my cardio at all times. There’s a reason they call me the cardio king.
“And it would be entertainment. And that’s what people want, they want entertainment. They want to watch something that they paid their hard-earned money for and what better than to pay for me. I promise I will take UFC and TUF to the promised land.”