Former interim UFC welterweight gold holder, Colby Covington has accused MMA Masters teammate, Mike Perry of not paying his gym fees during his time with the Sunshine State facility, which has drawn a response from the Michigan puncher.
Covington, who appears to be primed for a welterweight title rematch against current undisputed titleholder, Kamaru Usman sometime later this year, made the transition to the Florida-based facility after his time under long-time banner, American Top Team banner came to an end after he was involved in some notable fallouts with the likes of Dustin Poirier, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and arch-rival, division counterpart, Jorge Masvidal.
For Perry, the welterweight striker, who has spent time under the Jackson-Wink MMA banner as well as the Fusion X-Cell banner, briefly, has spent some time under the same scrutiny as Covington at MMA Masters, but according to the Clovis native, Perry, whom he labelled a “dirtbag” is the biggest “piece of sh*t“”.
“Mike Perry is a dirtbag,” Covington said during a recent interview with The Schmo. “I have nothing to say to him, you know. That guy, just the biggest piece of sh*t. Trash is all sports. I mean, he completely, you know, threw our gym (MMA Masters) under the bus. Didn’t pay his gym percentage fees.“
“We opened the doors to Mike Perry, you know,” Covington explained. “We didn’t want to let him here because he’s been through 10 different jumps, gyms disruptive, you know, just causing bad energy within these gyms. So, we gave him a home when no one else wanted him. Come pay the gym fees, man.“
Also speaking with The Schmo recently, Perry addressed those accusations from teammate, Covington, claiming that he attempted to reach out and pay his gym fees, however, despite his intentions, received no replies.
“Listen, I tried to pay those guys, tried to do business with those gyms” Perry said. “I spoke with them. Whoever I talked to over Instagram. I said, ‘what’s up man, I want to pay you guys something like this. If you don’t like that number, tell me what you think you deserve?’“
“There was no message response back… The team didn’t come (as cornermen) and they still seem to think they’re going to get this full percentage so people can throw dirt on my name but I tried to do business and they didn’t want to communicate it. If you wanted some money, I worked out for two months. What do you want per month? A gym membership is like $150 a month. I was going to give you $1000-2000. I didn’t win (against Daniel Rodriguez), I’m not the highest-paid fighter in the business. What do you think you guys deserve?” (H/T Essentially Sports)
These latest accusations from Covington follow recent claims that he has video footage of former ATT teammate, the above-mentioned, former interim lightweight champion, Poirier, dropping and taunting an amateur training partner ahead of his title unification fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov in September 2019.