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“He’s an egomaniac and it’s pathetic. He’s a bully to all these other guys but he can’t bully me and he knows that. He knows I’ll kick his ass.”
Earlier this week, following Dustin Poirier’s UFC 242 title loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov, ‘The Diamond’ called Colby Covington a ‘sell-out’ after being asked about potentially challenging the winner of Jorge Masvidal vs. Nate Diaz for the ‘BMF’ belt.
“Jorge (Masvidal) is a buddy of mine. I don’t sell out like f—king Colby Covington,” Poirier said at the post-fight press conference. “I don’t talk bad about people who I roll with.”
Covington soon got wind of Poirier’s comments and responded with the following statement, accusing Poirier of being mad that he picked Khabib to beat him.
“That’s the only reason Dustin is all mad at me and calling me a sellout because I picked against him in the fight,” Covington told MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin in a recent interview. “But how does that make me a sellout? If anything I bought in and he tapped out. I’m giving the people America’s pick of the week. I don’t want to let the people down. That’s why I’m the people’s champion because I bless people and make their bank accounts great again. So if he’s mad about my opinion, I’m sorry, you could have proved me wrong. You can prove my opinion wrong.
“I proved his opinion wrong. Dustin picked against me, he’s best friends with Robbie Lawler and he picked Robbie and he wanted Robbie to beat me. Did I get mad? Did I make excuses? No, I went out there and proved him wrong and beat Robbie Lawler’s ass every single round and set a UFC strikes record. He could have done the same but no, he wants to make excuses ‘Colby picked against me, he’s a sellout’.”
Covington also claims he offered to help Poirier prepare for the Khabib bout but that the Louisianan turned it down because he’s an ‘egomaniac’ and a ‘bully’.
“I was willing to offer up my services to help him train to give him that pressure look, that pressure wrestling style and he didn’t want to take it,” Covington said. “He wanted to act like he was better than everyone in the gym. That’s why I’ve never respected Dustin anyways. All these people that act like they are such nice and good people on camera, they are the complete opposite when the camera’s not on. They’re fake, how do they treat others that can’t do anything for them.
“I see how he treats people who can’t do anything for him. He treats them like s—t. He acts like he’s better than them. He’s an egomaniac and it’s pathetic. He’s a bully to all these other guys but he can’t bully me and he knows that. He knows I’ll kick his ass.”
Covington was expected to challenge Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title at UFC 244 but the bout reportedly fell through after ‘Chaos’ rejected the UFC’s offer. UFC 244, which takes place later this year, Nov. 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York, will now feature a headlining title bout between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz.