Colby
Covington revisited the onset of his beef with Dustin
Poirier that caused him “pain and suffering.”
Covington (17-4) and Poirier (30-9) were former teammates at
American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, where “The
Diamond” continues to train. However, a part of ATT since 2011,
Covington parted ways with the gym over feuds with Poirier,
Jorge
Masvidal and Joanna
Jedrzejczyk.
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Covington claims Poirier used to initially utilize him as a
wrestling partner, where he allegedly toyed around with the
Louisiana native. According to Covington, Poirier started becoming
egotistic once his UFC stardom started growing. While Covington
wasn’t quite there yet, he claims to have stood his ground against
Poirier.
“When we were training together, he was using me everyday just for
wrestling. Never wanted to do anything else but just wrestle with
me. I was giving him knowledge, giving him information, obviously
toying with him like he was an amateur,” Covington told Submission Radio. “Eventually his ego
got to him. He started winning some fights in the UFC and I was
still coming up. I hadn’t had the name that he had yet, so his ego
got to him. And he started treating people like sh*t. I wasn’t
going to stand for it cause I know I’m a better fighter than him.
So, I wasn’t going to let him walk all over me and just treat me
like sh*t.”
Once Covington started rising to fame, Poirier allegedly started
“badmouthing” him over his personality traits. Covington accused
Poirier of eventually getting him booted from ATT over “mean”
words, which doesn’t make sense to “Chaos,” being a cagefighter.
Covington claims the feud was depressing after all he had done for
Poirier.
“As soon as I started rising up the ranks and I became the top draw
in the company, that’s when he got jealous and envious. He just
started bad-mouthing me, ‘Ah, I don’t like the way Colby does this,
ah he’s a piece of sh*t person, he said some mean words.’ We’re
going to get locked up in a cage in our underwear in front of the
whole world and we’re going to try and kill each other, but ‘he
can’t say mean words.’ Telling the old gym owner, ‘kick Colby out,
he’s a meanie head, he said mean words, kick him out.’ So that’s
when the beef started. It sucks, because I did a lot for the kid,
man. I helped him a lot with the negotiations… I just felt like
snakebit. I was betrayed. It sucks cause I really did a lot for the
guy. And for him to turn on me like that, it was depressing almost.
That’s why I wanted to fight the guy so bad cause he just caused me
a lot of pain and suffering.”
Covington called out Poirier for a welterweight matchup after a
unanimous decision win over Masvidal at UFC 272 in 2022. While
Poirier said it’s “still on sight” with Covington, “The Diamond”
dismissed the callout saying he didn’t want “Chaos” making any
money off of him and would rather fight him in the street. However,
Covington accuses Poirier of shying away from a recent altercation
at a Miami steakhouse. Poirier allegedly walked out of the
restaurant after Covington walked up to him, daring him to do
something.
“I crossed paths with him three months ago in NYY Steakhouse,
Coconut Creek Casino. Which is in the same city that he trains at
the gym. And he came by the steakhouse, I looked at him in the eye,
I was like, ‘What’s up bitch? Say something, do something.’ And he
just walked out of the restaurant, cause he knows, you can talk big
in front of the camera. But when you’re in front of someone’s face
and you feel their energy and you know what they’re capable of,
then it’s a different story. Now you can’t run your mouth… I stood
up, I looked at him right in the eyes and he walked out of the
restaurant like a good little bitch.”
Poirier is fresh off a lightweight title loss against Islam
Makhachev, where he gave the champ arguably the toughest test
in recent years before being submitted in the final round.
Meanwhile, Covington is coming off a washout unanimous decision
loss against Leon
Edwards at UFC 296 in December, 2023 which was his third failed
title bid.