Covington: I want to leave Lawler in a pool of his own blood

Colby Covington has made things personal between him and former American Top Team fighter Robbie Lawler.

Former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler was one of the big names of the famed American Top Team stable in Florida. In early 2017, “Ruthless” left the team, simply stating it “wasn’t the place for him.”

But according to Colby Covington, Lawler parted ways with them when the photo of Tyron Woodley winning the belt at UFC 201 was hoisted up in the gym.

Now that they’ve been matched up against each other to headline UFC on ESPN 5 on August 3^rd, “Chaos” has made things personal.

“I’m going to have to handle him accordingly as the team captain of ATT,” Covington told MMA Junkie.

What got to Covington was the special treatment he felt Lawler received at the time, particularly from owner Dan Lambert.

“All the money that Dan put into him, Dan literally spoon-fed him,” Covington said. “Robbie had everything. I had to earn everything at ATT the hard way. Robbie had all the training partners. They were flying in training partners, all the best coaches, paying for whatever. The funding for him and his training camps was out of this world. No one had ever had that at ATT.

“Literally, he had it better than anybody in the history of this gym, and then he just takes his ball and leaves the yard.”

Covington is known to talk up a big game, and he now promises a violent finish against his former training partner.

“He was a good friend and a good training partner,” Covington said of Lawler. “He wasn’t out there to kill me back then, and that was different than Woodley. With Woodley, we used to get in serious fistfights. He’d start going hard when I was going light with him, and I’d have to take him down and wear him down, make him quit.

“With Robbie, we always trained with control,” he continued. “We always saved that (expletive) for the octagon. We had a good friendship. He helped me out with a lot of sponsors. But he turned his back on us, so it’s personal.

“I really do want to leave Robbie in a pool of his own blood. I’m pissed off what he did to Dan Lambert.”

UFC on ESPN 5 will take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Co-headlining the card is a lightweight fight between veterans Jim Miller and Clay Guida.