Photo by Christian Petersen/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC
It was recently revealed that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) hit a speed bump in its efforts to try and book a Welterweight title fight between division champion, Kamaru Usman, and No. 1 contender, Colby Covington.
While details regarding the hiccups weren’t discussed, the promotion is exploring other possibility for “The Nigerian Nightmare.” And one of those, apparently, is him defending his strap against Colby’s friend and training partner, Jorge Masvidal, at UFC 244 on Nov. 2, 2019 in New York.
ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, Masvidal, as well as “Gamebred’s” manager Malki Kawa, all took to social media to shed some light on the possibility.
As reported earlier, the Usman v Covington fight talks hit a snag. So the UFC turned their attention to Usman v Masvidal. But as you can see via @GamebredFighter’s most recent tweet, they are now having issues finalizing that one.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) September 5, 2019
I’m partying too @USMAN84kg what’s the hold up? Sign the contract #supernecessary #theresurrection #strapcity https://t.co/SEUts3EheW
— Jorge Masvidal UFC (@GamebredFighter) September 5, 2019
And here’s Masvidal’s manager, who of course also manages a lot of fighters, referring to a title fight on Nov. 2, too. Developing. https://t.co/r3XMjeLEn5
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) September 5, 2019
Furthermore, a 170-pound collision between Masvidal and Nate Diaz was apparently in the works for the pay-per-view (PPV) event inside Madison Square Garden, but it seems those talks have also hit a snag. And since Dana White stated that Diaz isn’t in UFC’s “big picture,” it doesn’t seem as if that fight is going to happen anytime soon.
Bummer.
That said, with Masvidal being discussed as an opponent for Usman, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the obstacles are coming by way of Covington. Should Jorge get the title fight, it could potentially setup a friend vs friend, teammate vs teammate title fight should he prove victorious against Kamaru.
And unlike Jon Jones and Rashad Evans and the old American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) crew that included Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck and Mike Swick, these two teammates don’t have a problem punching each other in the face for the belt.