If Jorge Masvidal isn’t willing to get into the cage with Colby Covington, ‘Chaos’ is more than happy to fight a man many welterweights won’t: Khamzat Chimaev.
We’re not even a month removed from Colby Covington’s failed second bid to dethrone welterweight champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 268, and already “Chaos” is plotting his path back to another title shot.
Part of that strategy involves selling his last loss as a win — Colby insists that the judges screwed him over when they gave Usman the fight 48–47, 48–47, and 49–46. Depending on how outraged he’s feeling at the time, Colby will tell you he should have won 3-2 or even 4-1. Talk like that may grease the wheels for a third fight even through he’s now 0-2 against the champ, but he’ll need something solid on his resume if he wants to get back in the batter’s box.
A win over Jorge Masvidal would certainly help. As would a fight against rising star Khamzat Chimaev. And unlike most fighters, Covington sounds more than happy to fight the Chechen even though he’s ranked down at #11 in the division.
“He’s a joke. He needs to beat someone worthy — someone in the top 5, someone in the top of the rankings, not just fight hand-picked people.” Covington said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “What does he have, four UFC fights? The media loves to rush these kids and these hype jobs. This is fighting, man. People can get seriously hurt from rushing people like that.”
“But if you guys want to rush a guy, take some time off of his life and send him for a hospital treatment, then, yeah, the door is open for that. I love doing good business and I love doing business with the UFC. It would be an honor to beat who they want me to beat, and if that’s the name they put in front of me, I can promise you that I’m gonna train extremely hard and I’m gonna show a new skill set the world hasn’t seen yet.”
“You kind of see that from me every fight, I get better every fight. I add new layers to my game, so whoever they try and match me up with next, you’re gonna see those new layers and someone is gonna get seriously hurt.”
“I’ll fight anybody,” he continued. “That’s what the best in the world does, they come out and prove it. I’m willing to prove it. Guys like Jorge Masvidal, he won’t prove it. He just says things to the media. He talks reckless, but he won’t prove it. I’m out here ready to prove it, so anybody, bring them all. Just don’t expect to get them back in one piece.”
We have our doubts the UFC will go the Chimaev route at this time. With Jorge Masvidal out of his UFC 269 fight with Leon Edwards, it sets up the much larger grudge match between Jorge and Colby. That’s the fight to make, and Masvidal insists it can be made for February or March. It all lines up too perfectly to throw a wild Khamzat into the mix.
Not that he wouldn’t be happy to jump in someone get injured last minute….