We may still get to see Colby Covington vs. Jorge Masvidal next year.
Almost everyone in the combat sports world agrees that the welterweight grudge match between the pair of former best friends is the fight to make.
However, it is yet to be announced with Covington claiming Masvidal is doing everything in his power to avoid the matchup — particularly because it doesn’t favor him stylistically.
“There’s a reason he doesn’t want to fight me, because he’s experienced this fight before, he knows how this fight plays out, and he doesn’t want to get embarrassed in front of the whole world. So, he’s in hiding right now,” Covington said recently. “They (UFC) said it was gonna be a tough task because he doesn’t want to fight you. They pretty much told me that he plain and simple told them that he doesn’t like the style match-up.
“You’re in the UFC fighting the best fighters in the world, you claim to want to be the best in the world, and you don’t like a style match-up? Like, what is this, The Real Divas of Atlanta? What are we doing? I thought we were the Ultimate Fighting Championship, not the Ultimate Feelings Championship. That’s why he’s never been the Ultimate Fighting Champion. He’s been nothing more than a broken mediocre fighting champion.”
That isn’t the case according to UFC president Dana White, however, as he revealed the fight is still being worked on in addition to the fact that it’s a fight the promotion wants as well.
“I don’t think Masvidal said I don’t like that fight stylistically,” White told The Schmo recently with a chuckle. “We’re working on that fight. It’s the fight we want too and hopefully we’ll get that done this year [2021] too.
“I’m telling you, we got nothing but big fights all this year so hopefully we can get a couple of these key ones buttoned up and done and start looking forward to them.”
One would imagine the winner of a Covington vs. Masvidal fight would be next in line for a title shot, particularly if it is the former and Kamaru Usman remains welterweight champion.
Hopefully, we get to see it sooner rather than later as it is certainly one of the most highly-anticipated fights in recent memory.
Who do you have winning?