Justin Gaethje admits that Colby Covington might be able to beat him in a UFC fight – but a street fight is a different story.
Gaethje is gearing up to challenge for the UFC lightweight title this weekend. He’ll headline UFC 274 on pay-per-view (PPV) from the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona on May 7. Recently, Gaethje was a guest on the “Full Send Podcast” to discuss a variety of topics.
One such topic was UFC welterweight Colby Covington, who has had a storied rivalry with the current 170-pound champion, and Gaethje teammate, Kamaru Usman. Gaethje isn’t a fan of the trash talk Covington dealt out regarding Usman’s family ahead of their fight. “The Highlight” said he’d love to punch a hole in Covington’s face.
“I would love to punch a hole in that motherf*****’s face. So you have respect for how fake one can be? I don’t like him. He talked about Kamaru’s family a lot, he was around me one day, we went to a Trump rally and he was respectful, like you say.
“And right when we left he got on the internet and started talking s***. So I don’t respect that. If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face. And it’s just fake, he’s trying to bring attention to himself.
“And I get it, like, I make money with my fighting, he makes money with his mouth. If he wanted to make money off his fighting he’d be a broke motherf*****.”
Gaethje admitted that Covington is a great fighter in terms of mixed martial arts (MMA). He even admitted that, if they shared the cage in the UFC, Covington would likely beat him. However, if they met up in a street fight, Gaethje thinks things would be a lot different.
“I think he’s a great fighter. But he sucks to watch. But yeah, if I fought him in the cage he’d probably beat me, because of his size and his ability to move forward and to grapple.
“But in a street fight, there’s no f****** chance. Because in a street fight I’d grab a brick and hit him in the f****** head. Yeah, can’t do that in this sport. There’s rules here.
“You got rules in this sport and in the street there are no rules. I think the only rule is don’t hit somebody from the back, so I’m definitely on his side when it comes to what happened with Masvidal. I think that was a b**** move. But I like Masvidal more.”
Currently, Covington is the No. 1-ranked welterweight in the world behind the champion, Usman. He has challenged “The Nigerian Nightmare” for the welterweight throne twice but pushed the champion to his limits in both fights, providing for some very competitive contests.
He’ll likely need to pick up another victory before challenging Usman again, but even “The Nigerian Nightmare” has stated he wants to face Covington one more time in the near future.
Quotes via Sportskeeda
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