Colby Covington is the future of the welterweight division.
That makes Tyron Woodley and Robbie Lawler the past, which may explain why the ex-champions are fighting for the newly-created “senior citizen championship” at the upcoming UFC on ESPN event this June in Minneapolis.
“We got Woodley and Lawler fighting for the senior citizen championship,” Covington told Ariel Helwani. “Those guys should be retired by now, they’re embarrassing. We got Ben Askren, he’s already gonna go get embarrassed in front of the whole world when he goes against [Jordan] Burroughs at Beat The Streets.”
Let’s take a look at the top half of the 170-pound division, ranked oldest to youngest.
Colby Covington: 31
Kamaru Usman: 31
Jorge Masvidal: 34
Ben Askren: 34
Robbie Lawler: 37
Tyron Woodley: 37
The only Top 10 fighter under 30 is Darren Till (26).
“We got my good buddy Jorge [Masvidal] climbing his way up, which we’ve had countless sparring sessions and training accounts together,” Covington continued. “Then we got me and Marty Fake Snoozeman at the top of the mountain right now ready to settle it. It’s an interesting time in the welterweight division. Didn’t I say I was gonna make the welterweight division great again? And that’s exactly what I did.”
We’ll see how great Covington can make things in his welterweight championship showdown against Usman later this year. Assuming we can make it between now and then without another buffet-line brawl in Las Vegas.