Following his UFC 245 loss to Kamaru Usman back in December 2019, in tandem with his outlandish nature and comments about teammates, former interim welterweight champion, Colby Covington split from Coconut Creek facility, American Top Team.
In the time since, Covington has been plying his trade alongside head coach, Cesar Carneiro at MMA Masters in Florida, however, once best friend and American Top Team stablemate, Jorge Masvidal has theorized that Covington will likely cut ties with the facility off the back of his Saturday rematch defeat to Usman.
Headlining UFC 268 against Auchi native, Usman, the #1 ranked, Covington suffered a unanimous decision loss as well as a pair of second round knockdowns before rallying in quite spectacular fashion to claim the third and fourth rounds.
The defeat came as Covington’s second in his three most recent UFC walks — with his last win coming against former welterweight champion and common-foe, Tyron Woodley back in September of last year at UFC Vegas 11 after the former kingpin suffered a fifth round rib injury.
Jorge Masvidal predicts Colby Covington will financially “burn” his coaches at MMA Masters
Reacting to Covington’s loss to Usman, Masvidal, a two-time welterweight title challenger as well, claimed that his past teammate would similarly cut ties with MMA Masters and “burn” them financially.
“2021-2022 prediction:” Jorge Masvidal tweeted. “Colby [Covington[ burns MMA Masters like he has every gym and every coach he ever had by not paying and talking sh*t on the way out. Rinse, wash, repeat.“
The origins of Masvidal and Covington’s rift stems from the latter’s 2018 interim welterweight title fight against former lightweight champion, Rafael dos Anjos — where Covington is alleged to have failed to pay boxing coach, Paulino Hernandez following his welterweight title victory.
Covington would split from American Top Team following his first career loss to Usman the following year, but made headlines for comments made regarding teammates, Masvidal, former interim lightweight champion, Dustin Poirier, and former strawweight champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
For Masvidal, the Floridian returns to the Octagon next month at UFC 269 in a high-stakes pivotal welterweight showdown against rival, Leon Edwards as he looks to begin en route to a third siege toward welterweight spoils.