LAS VEGAS – Colby Covington just settled one grudge, and now he’s turning his attention to another after UFC on ESPN+ 36.
Covington (16-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC) beat former training partner and longtime rival Tyron Woodley (19-6-1 MMA, 9-5-1 UFC) in a lopsided fifth-round TKO in Saturday’s welterweight headliner, which took place at UFC Apex and streamed on ESPN+.
With the next shot at Kamaru Usman’s 170-pound title going to Gilbert Burns, Covington said he has a good fight in mind to occupy his time, and that’s another former teammate in Jorge Masvidal.
“Where’s Jorge Masvidal at?” Covington told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at the UFC on ESPN+ 36 post-fight news conference. “He needs to come see me for all the talking he’s done. Come see if can walk the walk. I talk the talk and I walk the walk. I want to see Jorge Masvidal in that octagon. … I want the best friends turned enemy fight with ‘Street Judas’ Jorge Masvidal.
“He’s been talking all that talk reckless. He used to talk at the old gym, ‘I’m going to beat your ass, I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that.’ OK. Let’s see it. Come see me in the octagon then. He’s going after that California soy-boy Nate Diaz because he’s going after easy fights. I’m going to expose him like I did Tyron Woodley tonight.”
It appears there’s a realistic chance the matchup comes to fruition. UFC president Dana White said post-fight that he’s also interested, but it falls on Masvidal (35-14 MMA, 12-7 UFC) to accept the potential matchup.
“Maybe he fights Masvidal,” White said. “We’ll see if Masvidal wants that fight.”
Covington pointed to his matchup with Woodley as a sign of what would happen if he stepped in the octagon with Masvidal. He said Woodley was more competitive with him than Masvidal when they used to train together at American Top Team, and he won every round against the former UFC champ.
Despite getting his hand raised at UFC on ESPN+ 36, Covington said there will be no peace with Woodley. He said his rival stands for everything he hates, and said Woodley quit in the fight-ending sequence where he suffered an apparent rib injury.
“He was done,” Covington said. “I broke him. In the third round I broke him. He quit. I put vicious ground and pound. He was done. He told his coach he was done and he was looking for a way out. He knew I trapped his arm and I was getting ready to put vicious ground-and-pound on him and he took the easy way out. He would rather be the spineless coward like he is. He’s a woke little (expletive) and he got exposed tonight.”