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“It’s kind of unfortunate because Colby’s my friend. But the stuff he did upset me, man. Really, the stuff that he did to Dustin. That really upset me the most.”
Colby Covington has caused quite the stir amongst staff and teammates at American Top Team.
The former UFC interim welterweight titleholder has ruined his longtime friendship with Jorge Masvidal as well as upset several teammates with his derogatory comments toward Dustin Poirier prior to UFC 242.
“We wanna help the people and we wanna make your bank accounts great again. I am not here to make friends, I am here to make money. So go pound that Khabib money line cause Dustin can’t stop a nose bleed, how he is going to stop a takedown,” Covington said ahead of UFC 242.
American Top Team’s Hayder Hassan, who had a short stint with the UFC back in 2015, explained why he is so upset with Covington’s behavior.
“Jorge has been my teammate for over ten years,” Hassan told The Body Lock in a recent interview (h/t Abhinav Kini). “Colby…maybe five years. I don’t endorse what Colby’s been doing.
“It’s kind of unfortunate because Colby’s my friend. But the stuff he did upset me, man. Really, the stuff that he did to Dustin. That really upset me the most. Dustin’s such a good dude. I thought it was really uncalled for. It upset a lot of guys on the team, really upset everybody.
“… Even Jorge, like they should fight. I love Jorge. Jorge is my dude, bro. … They train at different times. They try to keep them at the gym at different times to keep [from] any sort of confrontation or something happening. But at some point, they will cross paths. That’s real. Jorge hates Colby. Colby does not like Jorge.”
If Covington beats Kamaru Usman next month at UFC 245, Hassan would like to see ‘Gamebred’ take on ‘Chaos’ for the UFC welterweight title — teammate vs. teammate.
“Colby’s not about that life,” Hassan added. “He will try to defuse it or try not to be there. Whereas Jorge is about that life and he will do something. That’s what caused Dan Lambert to get very nervous, upset. He didn’t know what to do. That’s why he was trying to call everybody, call Jorge, tell him don’t do anything. Call Colby, tell him don’t do anything. Call Dustin, tell him don’t do anything. It was a lot of micromanagement that he had to do.
“Unfortunate, man. Hopefully, Colby will beat [Kamaru] Usman. Jorge will fight Colby or Nick Diaz, that would be awesome. We’ll see what happens. But they should fight at some point. The way it’s going, it’ll be a good money fight. Drama sells, especially when it’s real drama — that shit works.”
UFC 245, which features Usman vs. Covington as the main event, takes place on Dec. 14 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.