Colby Covington remains unimpressed with Leon Edwards and believes the Englishman should’ve been disqualified at UFC Vegas 21.
‘Rocky’ was originally set to fight Khamzat Chimaev on March 13 but the undefeated Swedish fighter was forced out of the bout as he continues to recover from COVID-19.
Covington was offered the chance to step into the main event slot opposite Edwards but turned down the fight. ‘Chaos’ continues to campaign for a rematch with UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ previously stopped Covington in the fifth and final round at UFC 245.
On Saturday night, Edwards looked impressive early before an inadvertent eye poke brought an end to his fight with late-replacement opponent Belal Muhammad.
Post-fight, Edwards revealed he is not interested in running things back with Muhammad and thinks he’s already done enough to earn a shot at UFC gold.
During a recent interview with Submission Radio, Covington gave his thoughts on Edwards and his long-awaited comeback fight at UFC Vegas 21.
“I’ve watched little tapes from here, bits and pieces from the past, and I don’t see anything special. I see a bum,” Covington said about Edwards. “I see a guy that hasn’t fought in two years. What’s the criteria for the rankings? How is he still in the rankings? I know that before they pulled him out of the rankings because of the inactivity and he was ducking fights. He didn’t want to fight little Wonderboy. He didn’t want to fight someone else.
“So, they pulled him out of the rankings,” Covington continued. “But now he’s back in the rankings, he still hasn’t fought in two years. He has a no contest – which by the way, that should have been a disqualification, because he did poke the guy in the face in the first round. And backstage, I know that Herb Dean gave them the warning, hey, don’t poke anybody in the eye. Cause that’s the instruction they give every time before you go out for a fight. So, he should have been disqualified. I don’t know how that was a no contest. But that being said, he still hasn’t fought in two years.”
Do you agree with Colby Covington? Should Leon Edwards have been disqualified at UFC Vegas 21?