Colby
Covington settled the score with former American Top Team
training partner Jorge
Masvidal in the best way possible, winning a dominant unanimous
decision in the UFC 272 headliner on Saturday night at the T-Mobile
Arena in Las Vegas.
After the victory, Covington reflected on the grudge match and what
it was like to square off against someone he once considered a
close friend.
“Just a lot of emotions going into it,” Covington said at
Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “That was a real friend of
mine at one point in my career, and he’s such a backstabbing thief,
and he talks so reckless. He tried to make some false narratives to
the media and lies like he does – he’s a liar. He’s a thief. So I
let the emotions get the best of me, but it was still dominant.
“I just showed how good I was, that I am the No. 1 fighter in the
world for a reason, and it wasn’t even competitive tonight.”
Covington is ready to close that book on the Masvidal rivalry
following Saturday’s win, even though there still appeared to be
bad blood between the two men at the final bell.
“He was still running his mouth,” Covington said. “It’s like, dude,
you just got pounded out. You got dropped, wobbled. Just a complete
domination from second one to minute 25. You could see in his body
language, he literally didn’t have another one minute to go, so
just imagine if there wasn’t a ref there tonight. His life would
have been over.
“So, that’s the end of ‘Street Judas.’ I don’t want to hear any
more talk of Street Judas, the hype machine that hit lightning in a
bottle for a couple fights. He’s done. I don’t want to hear another
word about it.”
With wins in nine of his last 11 appearances, Covington remains the
clear No. 2 in the UFC’s welterweight division, but a title shot
appears unlikely considering “Chaos” has two losses already to
reigning champ Kamaru
Usman. In his post-fight interview, Covington called out
Dustin
Poirier, another American Top Team standout.
“He said it’s on sight. Let’s do it,” Covington said of Poirier.
“Stop talking reckless in the media. If I talk to the media and say
things, I come out here and back it up. I’m a man of my word.
“So we can do it anywhere. We don’t have to do it in the UFC
Octagon. If he wants to do it in a park, or in a street, my one
stipulation is that you let the world watch it and enjoy
themselves.”
Meanwhile, UFC president Dana White was unsure of what the future
holds for Covington. He wasn’t immediately ready to endorse a clash
with Poirier, who competes at lightweight, and he also wouldn’t
completely rule out a trilogy with Usman if Covington continues to
rack up victories.
“I don’t know, he’s in a very weird situation having lost to Usman
twice,” White said. “Usman’s lapping everybody. I don’t know, we’ve
got to see what’s next and talk to Colby and see what he really
wants to do. You fight Poirier and then what? He has to go in some
type of direction whether he’s gonna go to ‘55 and fight at—I don’t
know, we gotta talk.
“Listen, if he stays at 170, he keeps winning, you’ve eventually
got to give the kid a shot [at Usman] again.”