Ahead of his own Octagon return at UFC 287 this weekend, former two-time title challenger, Jorge Masvidal has questioned how former interim welterweight champion, Colby Covington can challenge Leon Edwards for gold this summer, pointing to the Clovis’ claim to have suffered a brain injury during their extracurricular altercation in March of last year.
Masvidal, the current #11 ranked welterweight contender, is scheduled to return to the Octagon at UFC 287 this weekend in Miami, Florida – taking on fellow division contender, Gilbert Burns in a pivotal co-headlining slot.
Sidelined since March of last year, Miami veteran, Jorge Masvidal suffered a one-sided unanimous decision loss to Covington in their long-awaited grudge match.
As for Covington, the Californian attended UFC 286 last month – serving as an official backup to the event’s welterweight title fight between Edwards, and former opponent, Kamaru Usman.
And following the conclusion of the pay-per-view main event, Covington has been slated to fight Birmingham native, Edwards in an undisputed welterweight title fight this summer.
Earlier this week to boot, reports detailed how the promotion was targeting a welterweight title fight between Edwards and Covington for UFC 291 on July 22. – with the flagship event earmarked for London, England.
Jorge Masvidal questions how Colby Covington has landed a UFC title fight
Questioning Covington’s stake to a title fight with Edwards, Masvidal scoffed at the idea of the #2 ranked contender challenging for gold next.
“More than anything, he’s (Colby Covington) claiming that he has a brain injury, so now, all of a sudden, you could fight?” Jorge Masvidal said during an interview with The Sporting News. “I have three felonies because this guy’s saying that I allegedly, did this and I allegedly did that and he has a brain injury off of it, but you can go fight for a world title if you’ve got a brain injury?”
“I don’t know why exactly he (Dana White) did that [announce Colby Covington as the next title challenger],” Jorge Masvidal continued. “But I also know that maybe he’s setting up the stage real high for me. He wants me to go in there and just smash a record on Gilbert’s (Burns) face so there’s like no question about it. Masvidal is fighting for the belt and that’s the only way around it.”
In his most recent professional victory, Masvidal earned a fourth doctor’s stoppage TKO victory over Nate Diaz in the main event of UFC 244 back in November 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.