Most rivalries never get as heated as the one between Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal did.
UFC 272 infamously provided the expected blowoff bout between the pair of former best friends in March 2022. However, it was nowhere near the end of their saga as later in the month, Masvidal assaulted Covington outside of a Miami, Florida steakhouse.
Covington won the grudge match in a one-sided fashion as he utilized his patented wrestling to earn a unanimous decision. Masvidal has since hung up his gloves with a retirement that followed another unanimous decision defeat to Gilbert Burns in April 2022. Despite that, he’s been adamant he’ll meet Covington again in some variety, whereas “Chaos” has his doubts that it would come in the Octagon, at the least.
“I don’t think the UFC would sanction that because they just saw how easily I beat him the first time,” Covington told Tucker Carlson. “I beat him every round convincingly, knocked him down, dragged him out. It was a 50-43 and a soda is what I gave him. So, I don’t think the UFC would give me an easy matchup like that ever again.
“UFC likes to make prestigious and high-level fights,” he continued. “They wouldn’t want to give me some amateur that’s not on my level.”
The Masvidal win remains Covington’s last as we head into 2024. The perennial top UFC Welterweight contender closed out 2023 with a third loss in undisputed title challenges when he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Leon Edwards at UFC 296 last month (Dec. 16, 2023).
The eventual falling out between Covington and Masvidal was a sad one, considering the close-knit history they had together. Each of the claims they’ve made about each other in the time since have sounded fairly similar, but Covington, unsurprisingly, stands by it all.
“We were best friends for eight years,” Covington said. “We lived together for three years. Best, best friends, but that’s what this sport does to people. People will sell out their friends for money. All he wanted was fame and money so as soon as I started reaching up and getting high in this sport, that’s when he took it personal and his ego kicked in.
“He was like, ‘Hey, man. We can’t be friends. I want money more than I want to be friends with you,’” he concluded.