Colby Covington thinks Leon Edwards should have been penalized for his inadvertent eye poke against Belal Muhammad.
Edwards’ highly anticipated return was ruled a no contest when he accidentally poked Muhammad in the eye in their UFC Fight Night 187 headliner on Saturday night. Muhammad suffered clear damage to his right eye and the fight was waved off after “Remember the Name” was ruled unable to continue.
Edwards (18-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC), who has been campaigning for a title shot for a while now, is currently in a tough spot. His first fight in almost two years ended in unfortunate circumstances, perhaps leaving him in limbo in the UFC’s welterweight division.
After the Muhammad fight, Edwards expressed his desire to move on, and called for a title shot. But Covington (16-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC), who is also gunning for a rematch with welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, was not impressed by Edwards’ performance and thinks he should have received a harsher penalty for poking Muhammad in the eye.
“No, I could care less how he looks,” Covington told Submission Radio. “I’ve watched little tapes from here, bits and pieces from the past, and I don’t see anything special. I see a bum. I see a guy that hasn’t fought in two years. What’s the criteria for the rankings? How is he still in the rankings? I know that before they pulled him out of the rankings because of the inactivity and he was ducking fights. He didn’t want to fight little ‘Wonderboy.’ He didn’t want to fight someone else. So, they pulled him out of the rankings. But now he’s back in the rankings, he still hasn’t fought in two years.
“He has a no contest – which by the way, that should have been a disqualification because he did poke the guy in the face in the first round. And backstage, I know that Herb Dean gave them the warning, ‘Hey, don’t poke anybody in the eye,’ because that’s the instruction they give every time before you go out for a fight. So, he should have been disqualified. I don’t know how that was a no contest. But that being said, he still hasn’t fought in two years. How is he in the rankings, guys? What’s the criteria?”
Prior to the Muhammad booking, the UFC was angling for a matchup between Edwards and Covington, but Covington appeared uninterested. Covington explained that he would have accepted the short-notice fight if the numbers were right.
“It was going to be a price tag,” Covington said. “I wanted a little bit more than was in my contract. I just wasn’t going to show up for a normal paycheck to fight that guy. For me to come up and show that up on short notice and fight that guy, you know, the way I fight guys, I redline it every time I fight. So, when I fight, you know you’re getting a Ferrari that’s coming forward, high octane, high energy, and he’s coming to fight and bring the fight. So, if I want to fight at my best, I need a full training camp. So, that fight was never gonna happen unless the UFC was gonna pay for it to happen.”
He continued, “They asked me and said, ‘Hey, what’s it gonna take, Colby, for your price?’ Because first off, let’s be honest, why are we in this position? Because this guy, irrelevant Leon Scott, was supposed to fight some kid named Sputnik. And, you know, Sputnik pulls out a couple of times, he doesn’t want to fight, your hype job is down the drain. Sorry, UFC, your plan, it’s all folded up now. Now it’s all in shame. So, let’s talk about why we got to that position. And once we get to that position, we’re three weeks out. You want me to save your card? You want me to get off the couch when I’m hanging out with Polyana Viana every day, and you want me to show up and save the day and make the UFC great again on short notice? It’s going to take a price tag.
“It’s not gonna be the basic offer that’s already in my contract. If you’re gonna give me the basic offer, I’m gonna take a full training camp and I’m gonna take my time. I’m gonna fight when I want to fight, when my body’s ready to fight. I’m always ready to fight. I strive on excellence and always being in shape and always ready to fight, but I also want to fight at peak performance. And there’s peaks and valleys, and I know when to peak and how to have my body ready to peak at the right time. So, if I want to have my body peak at the right time, I need a full training camp.”
Colby Covington slams ‘bum’ Leon Edwards after eye-poke no contest at UFC Fight Night 187