Colby Covington believes Jorge Masvidal questioned American Top Team (ATT) owner Dan Lambert’s authority by breaking the new no-trash talk rule.
Last month, it was revealed that Lambert had enforced a zero tolerance rule barring trash talk between fighters at the gym if they are not scheduled to face each other. It was introduced amid Covington’s beef with teammates Dustin Poirier and Masvidal among others.
Although Covington and Poirier have seemingly made up, Masvidal took to Twitter to explain why it doesn’t apply with him and “Chaos”:
“F*ck coby. The most fragile most sensitive guy in ufc history,” Masvidal wrote. “Can’t kick me out cause this rule was for fighters only. Not crotch sniffers that get their jaw broken by other crotch sniffers. @AmericanTopTeam we all know that dude is no fighter.”
It’s been a couple of weeks since, but Covington finally reacted to Masvidal’s tweet.
“Yeah, my reaction is, I was shocked,” Covington told Submission Radio. “He completely went against Dan Lambert’s word. Lambert put out that headline that said no talking between teammates unless you’re scheduled to fight, and Jorge completely just questioned his authority.
“So, as Dan Lambert, I can’t even imagine how he feels towards Jorge that he just completely tried to question him as a man and question his authority and just completely tried to pretty much back talk him. It’s just… that’s pretty embarrassing. I feel pretty bad for Jorge that he did that to Dan Lambert, and I can’t imagine the talks that were going on behind closed doors with that.”
Although it looks like Masvidal is set to face welterweight champion Kamaru Usman next, a fight with Covington seems inevitable in the future.
But having sparred with “Gamebred” regularly when they were roommates, Covington believes it’s a fight Masvidal doesn’t want:
“My relationship between me and journeyman street Judas Jorge Masvidal is, he could potentially be competition,” Covington added. “We’ll have to see if he makes it that far. To be honest, I’ve said what I said. He’s lighting in a bottle, he’s all hype, he doesn’t want to fight me, man.
“We used to train together for eight years, man. We were best friends, we lived in an apartment together. Me and Jorge Masvidal used to fight for free. Go look on YouTube. There’s literally fights where we fought in our living room. We fought for two hours straight and I made him quit, pretty much like every other training session that I made him quit. So, journeyman street Judas Masvidal does not want to fight me, and that’s just facts.”
And as far as trash talking Masvidal goes, Covington is going to adhere to the gym’s rule.
“Yeah, I’m still gonna stick by that rule, man,” Covington said. “I’m a man of my word and I got nothing to say about it anymore. I’m just focused on Tyron Woodley and Marty Fakenewsman and any other business opposition that I have to get involved in. And this is the fight business, this isn’t the feelings business and this isn’t friends business. So, I’m here to make money, I’m not here to make friends.”
What do you make of Covington’s response?