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“I’ve done a pretty good job of sh*tting all over Colby Covington, but now I’m gonna retract my statements because he played it well”.
Despite difficulties at the negotiation table, former UFC interim champ Colby Covington ‘played it well’ by securing a title shot against Kamaru Usman, according to UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping.
Covington and Usman were expected to collide in a headlining welterweight title bout at UFC 244 but the fight was scrapped after ‘Chaos’ reportedly turned down the UFC’s offer, with Covington accusing the UFC of low-balling him with ‘slave labor’ wages.
Then, to everyone’s surprise, the UFC announced that Covington vs. Usman was back on and would headline the upcoming UFC 245 pay-per-view on Dec. 14.
Shortly after the fight was announced, Bisping credited Covington for sticking to his guns and playing hard with the UFC.
“I’ve done a pretty good job of sh*tting all over Colby Covington, but now I’m gonna retract my statements because he played it well,” Bisping said on his podcast (via MMA News). “‘Cause I said, ‘alright he wanted the title fight forever, but he turned it down.’ He was supposed to fight Woodley, but apparently he was injured. So there was that whole thing, so it didn’t make Colby look good.
“Then they offered him Kamaru Usman, apparently turned it down cause he wanted more money. Then they offered him Tyron Woodley and he turned that down. Now he’s fighting Usman after all at the end-of-the-year show.”
Bisping continued…
“To be honest, now it looks like Colby played it correctly because he’s got the title fight,” he said. “So number one, I understand him turning down the Woodley fight. Why you gonna take Woodley on? Woodley’s a tough fight for anybody. He’s a very, very tough fight. He was the champion up until very, very recently. So if they offer you a title fight because the money wasn’t right, for the UFC to then offer you Woodley that doesn’t make sense for Covington.
“Now I was quick to throw him under a bus and say, ‘this guy doesn’t wanna fight anybody.’ But it seems like perhaps, and I don’t know this is no circle of trust issues here, one would assume that they went back to the negotiating table and all parties are happy.”
UFC 245, which also features a co-headlining featherweight title bout between Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski as well as a women’s bantamweight title bout between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko, takes place later this year, Dec. 14 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.