According to Jorge Masvidal, he was briefly booted from American Top Team because of an altercation with Colby Covington.
Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington have been public about their disdain for each other. The two were former teammates and close training partners at the American Top Team for many years until 2019, when their falling out began.
Apart from their respective interviews, none of us fans saw what was happening behind the scenes. According to Masvidal, it’s gotten so bad ATT owner Dan Lambert booted him out of the team for a brief period.
“Colby’s that one person that — and I always say this, wherever I see him, it’s a free pay-per-view right there,” Masvidal told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani in a recent interview. “And he knows that, that’s why he used to make videos, like, ‘This guy’s so unprofessional, he tried to fight me in the street.’
“Because I got kicked out of the gym for trying to assault him one time. And then I used to go to the spots that he used to frequent a lot and got the police called on me and things like that.
“I know a lot of people think, like, ‘Man, you’re an idiot. You’re a professional fighter, why would you do that?’ Because I f—ng feel like it. And nobody tells me what to do.”
“Gamebred” says Lambert eventually came around and brought him back, but ultimately decided to keep Covington off the team.
“They brought my ass back. They suspended us both. Our general, chief in commander Dan Lambert, had put kind of like a rule, like, ‘If you don’t have a bout agreement signed, I don’t want nobody talking crap to nobody in the team.’ And Colby had said, like, numerous things to me already. He’s the one that had said little puns here and there and I was just completely ignoring him.
“And I had enough one day and I said something back and I got us both kicked out. I talked to Dan about it, and then he was, like, ‘You’re right, brother. This guy’s a piece of shit. He’s gotta go. And I’ll bring you right back where you’ve always been and where you belong and let this f—ng coward f—ng sink elsewhere.’”
In February, rumors arose about a TUF season where the two men would be opposing coaches. Masvidal says nothing was made official and that its failure to happen was for the best.
“Me being a coach on the Ultimate Fighter with Colby was probably never gonna happen because I was for sure gonna end up in handcuffs,” he said. “It’s not gonna play out. You can’t pay me enough money to hear this idiot… Nah, it’s not happening.
You can’t pay me enough money to have to do six weeks with this fucking idiot. I would have gone to jail.#HelwaniShow pic.twitter.com/k44Fvr9GJU
— Jed I. Goodman (@jedigoodman) April 7, 2021
“You can’t pay me enough money to do six weeks with this f—ng idiot. I would’ve gone to jail, for a fact. And I’m not trying to go to jail.”
Masvidal did guarantee that the fight will Covington will eventually happen, but it has to be on his terms.
“This is somebody that I really can’t stand. So I really want to hurt this guy in a way that I’ve never done. I want to make it seem like the Ben Askren fight was very merciful compared to what I’m gonna do to Colby. Guaranteed.
“And that fight will take place, but when I the f—k say so.”
Masvidal is set to headline UFC 261 against reigning champion Kamaru Usman on April 24 in Jacksonville, Florida. Covington says he’s ready to step in in case one of them fails to show up on fight day.