Belal
Muhammad’s long-awaited title shot will have to keep waiting—if
Colby
Covington has anything to say about it.
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Former interim champ Covington (17-3) is set to challenge Leon
Edwards (21-3, 1 NC) for the welterweight title on Saturday in
his first outing since March 2022. While many considered the 23-3
Muhammad to be the rightful next challenger thanks to his 10-fight
unbeaten streak, the promotion elected to award the title shot to
the brash “Chaos.” Edwards himself has called the challenger’s
credentials into question as well, pointing out that the last three
opponents Covington beat are no longer in the UFC.
Covington fired back at Wednesday’s press conference, referring to
Muhammad as a “racist” and “race baiter.”
“No, who wants to fight a racist?” Covington said. “I mean could
you imagine if I said someone earned something off the color of
their skin? That’s absolutely despicable. It’s disgusting. That guy
hasn’t deserved anything. It’s not my fault he’s not a star. You
have to make yourself a star. I’m the one that did the things that
needed to be done to become a superstar like I have. What has he
done? He hasn’t done anything.
“He’s out there race baiting saying ‘you earned this because of the
color of your skin, it’s white privilege.,’” he added “Are you
f—— kidding me? Dude, he’s not getting no title shot. There
will be no title shot for him.”
Responding to Covington, Muhammad dismissed the idea of “Chaos”
choosing his opponents, while also taking a swipe at Edwards,
referring to recent reports that the champ removed undefeated Irish
prospect Ian Garry
from his home gym, Team Renegade. “Remember the Name” wrote:
“NEITHER OF THESE CLOWNS CALLS THE SHOTS Leon’s a nerd who throws
people out of his gym because he can’t handle competition and Colby
is just a bum Trying to wait for Trump to be president again so he
feels relevant…”
White has said that Muhammad will “100%” go on to fight the winner
of the UFC 296 headliner.
UFC 296 takes place on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Feature. The card will be co-headlined by a flyweight title bout
between reigning champion Alexandre
Pantoja and Brandon
Royval.