Former interim UFC welterweight champion, Colby Covington has fired barbs at the #2 ranked most recent welterweight title challenger, Gilbert Burns calling the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu standout a “scrub” amid his third round knockout loss to common-foe, Kamaru Usman at UFC 258 in February.
Hoping to draft into a title challenge position of his own off the back of a fifth round rib injury victory over former teammate and titleholder, Tyron Woodley, Covington has been out of action since that UFC Vegas 11 headliner back in September of last year.
Earmarked as a possible short-notice replacement for the COVID-19 stricken, Khamzat Chimaev’s at UFC Vegas 21 on Saturday last, Covington infamously claimed that he wouldn’t do “charity“ for Leon Edwards on such short notice, with the Birmingham native ultimately drawing Belal Muhammad instead, in a fight which ended in an unfortunate ‘No Contest’ amid a nasty eye poke.
Constantly linked to a grudge-match against former friend and American Top Team stablemate, current BMF champion, Jorge Masvidal — possibly in a reboot of The Ultimate Fighter this summer, Covington claimed that the Floridian turned down a “seven-figure” payday by the UFC to serve as an opposing coach on the reality T.V. show, ahead of a July pay-per-view main event showdown.
The subject of recent callouts from both former title chasers, the above mentioned, Burns and Stephen Thompson, Covington fired some barbs at his welterweight peers during a recent sitdown with Submission Radio.
“Let’s also talk about (Stephen Thompson) ‘Wonderboy’” Covington said. “This is a 40-year-old man, he’s claiming to be a boy. What? I guess you can identify these days as whatever you want, cause if he wants to be a boy, he’s a 40-year-old man. He drives around in his Karate van with Karate kids and he watches cartoons. What’s scary about that? There’s nothing scary about that. If his dad was a real man he would have put his son in wrestling, not Karate. The guy’s irrelevant.“
“And Dilbert (Gilbert Burns), Dilbert, you’re coming off a knockout loss. You’re a lightweight washout. You’re a scrub. You don’t deserve to fight anything. You need to go beat a couple of bums at lightweight. So, this division is mine. I’m the welterweight king. Nobody’s stopping me. You can delay me UFC, but you cannot deny me.“
A thirteen-fight promotional veteran. Covington has bested the likes of Mike Pyle, Max Griffin, Bryan Barberena, Demian Maia, as well as former champions, Rafael dos Anjos, Robbie Lawler, and the above mentioned, Woodley.