Despite two losses to the champion in his last four outings, Colby Covington is still at the very top of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight rankings as the No. 1-ranked contender.
“Chaos” has since rebounded from his most recent defeat to Kamaru Usman by scoring a unanimous decision victory against best friend turned heated rival, Jorge Masvidal (watch highlights). One of the talking points going into their UFC 272 battle was that of Covington not getting pay-per-view (PPV) points although he was one-half of the main event. The former UFC interim champion hopes to change that going forward as his base salary was reportedly still lower than Masvidal’s without his PPV points tacked on.
“[Covington] did well, but Masvidal made more than he did,” Covington’s coach at MMA Masters, Daniel Valverde told AG Fight (h/t My MMA News). “Now Colby is renewing his contract with the UFC, so we believe that the UFC will give him a good [salary] raise. He has a number in his head and he doesn’t think he deserves to earn less than Masvidal. Technically he’s a better guy than Masvidal. In terms of sales too, despite the fact that Masvidal sells a lot. So he thinks he deserves to make more or at the same level as Masvidal.
“He has a great relationship with Dana [White], with the UFC, so he only speaks well of the company,” he continued. “He doesn’t want to leave the UFC, that’s not an option. He’s happy there, he wants to be champion and he’s going to chase the wins to fight for the belt. He’s a very determined guy and he won’t stop until he achieves his goal.”
While Covington awaits his next bout, he is fighting in court after pressing charges against the aforementioned Masvidal for an alleged sucker punch incident last month (March 2022).