Colby Covington has some fight ideas beyond Leon Edwards.
UFC 296 will see the return of “Chaos” in Las Vegas this weekend (Sat., Dec. 16, 2023). The two-time Welterweight title challenger, Covington, has been absent from action since his dominant unanimous decision win over Jorge Masvidal at UFC 272 in March 2022. He’ll have no easy task in front of him as he hopes to make the third time the charm in becoming an undisputed champion by dethroning the champion, Edwards.
The proud American has already expressed interest in other divisional champions despite having yet to win a title of his own. Covington has noted how a match up with Lightweight kingpin, Islam Makhachev, would be a dream pairing. However, at Middleweight, Sean Strickland is also on “Chaos’” radar.
“He’s pretending to be everything he wishes I was,” Covington told CODE Sports. “I’d love to slap Sean Strickland around. He’s just a pathetic excuse of a human being, the guy has literally no fricking IQ. The guy’s so f—king stupid. The things he says, he needs to get his mouth wired shut and I’m the guy to do it. The UFC knows I’m the one that can end these guys that hate the company and they hate the world, so I would love to fight Sean Strickland.”
Before Covington and Strickland can think about a potential champion vs. champion tilt, they’ll need to win their next outings. While Covington deals with Edwards, Strickland makes his first title defense as the 185-pound champion when he battles Dricus Du Plessis in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at UFC 297 next month (Sat., Jan 20, 2023).
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 296 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET (simulcast on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. ET), before the pay-per-view (PPV) main card start time at 10 p.m. ET (also on ESPN+).
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