While some are wondering whether this Saturday represents Colby
Covington’s last, best chance at an undisputed title, he
already has his sights set on two-division glory.
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Former
Ultimate Fighting Championship interim welterweight titleholder
Covington (17-3), who challenges Leon
Edwards (21-3, 1 NC) in the main event of UFC 296 on Saturday in Las Vegas, has been
vocal about his plans for the near future. Despite not having
fought since last March and despite two of his last four outings
being title losses, “Chaos” earned himself another shot against
Edwards, thanks in part to his penchant for incendiary
statements.
While Covington is a slight underdog going into this week’s
matchup, he has already disclosed his next target: UFC middleweight
champ Sean
Strickland. While Strickland is notorious for expressing his
unhinged opinions on a variety of controversial topics, Covington
claims to see through Strickland’s public persona, and believes he
can shut him down. The 35-year-old told CODE Sports:
“He’s pretending to be everything he wishes I was. I’d love to slap
Sean
Strickland around. He’s just a pathetic excuse of a human
being, the guy has literally no fricking IQ. The guy’s so f******
stupid. The things he says, he needs to get his mouth wired shut
and I’m the guy to do it. The UFC knows I’m the one that can end
these guys that hate the company and they hate the world, so I
would love to fight Sean
Strickland.”
Strickland, who shocked the world by upsetting Israel
Adesanya for the 185-pound title in September, is set to defend
his title against Dricus Du
Plessis at UFC 297 on Jan. 20. While the middleweight division
has no dearth of contenders waiting for the next shot, Covington
expressed his disinclination to face a fellow contender in his
hypothetical middleweight debut, even a former champ such as
Robert
Whittaker.
“No, that ship has sailed,” Covington said. “Robert, he lost the
title and then he got beat in a contender fight so he’s just not
relevant anymore, he doesn’t make sense for me. I’m the top of the
division, I’m about to be welterweight champion of the world, so I
only want the biggest and best fights the UFC has to offer and I
know they wouldn’t even waste my time and waste their time to try
and put that fight together.”