No. 4 ranked welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal spoke to Ariel Helwani ahead of his rematch against Kamaru Usman for the welterweight championship at UFC 261.
One of the many topics they discussed was the potential bout that was in talks between “Gamebred” and his former training partner and close friend, no. 1 welterweight contender Colby Covington.
Masvidal was candid when asked why the fight with Covington didn’t come to fruition.
“Because Colby’s a bitch,” Masvidal said. “They offered him good money.”
Masvidal said he knew he was going to get the rematch with Usman. As a result, “Gamebred” had less incentive to take a fight with Covington when he already knew he was going to fight for the title again.
“[The UFC] has already told me ‘Hey, you have the Usman fight.’ So why am I gonna fight the second place guy that got his jaw broken? [He] left running out of the ring, didn’t talk for months on Twitter because he got his jaw broken,” Masvidal said. “Why don’t I go fight the guy that broke his jaw?”
Despite Masvidal’s logic, “Gamebred” assures that he’ll fight Covington before the 49 fight veteran calls it a career. Until then however, Masvidal is focused on fighting the biggest and best fights he has available.
“I’m gonna beat the crap out of him too before my career’s done. But I’m gonna fight the biggest and the best fights possible,” Masvidal said. “Then I’ll come down to these JV motherf–kers, you know?”
Masvidal also addressed his disdain for his former friend and teammate and doubled down on his claim that the two will see each other in the octagon some time in the future.
“With Colby it’s like somebody that I really can’t stand. So I really want to hurt this guy in a way that I’ve never done,” Masvidal said. “I wanna 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 fuck say so.”
“Gamebred” then went into detail on how the bad blood began between the no. 1 contender and himself.
Why does Jorge Masvidal dislike Colby Covington so much?
Masvidal said Covington expressed interest in working with Masvidal’s coach Paulino Hernandez. “Gamebred” then said Covington worked with his coach for two months when Hernandez then made a “handshake” deal with Covington that “Chaos” would pay Hernandez five percent of his earnings.
But once Covington made some legitimate money from his interim title fight with Rafael Dos Anjos, he stiffed Hernandez.
Since then, Masvidal yearned to get his hands on Covington.
He said he got kicked out of his gym and Covington’s former gym American Top Team for trying to assault “Chaos”, along with going to places Covington frequently attended.
“Gamebred” claimed he even got the cops called on him on one occasion.
Masvidal then detailed the story behind him and Covington getting kicked out of ATT.
Jorge Masvidal wants trilogy after he beats Kamaru Usman at UFC 261
“They suspended us both. Our general chief and commander Dan Lambert had put kind of a rule like, ‘If you don’t have a bout agreement signed, I don’t want nobody talking crap to nobody on the team’,” Masvidal said. “Colby had said numerous things to me already, and he’s the one who always said little puns here and there and I was just completely ignoring him like, ‘Alright whatever, I’ll see you when I see you right? Blah blah blah blah’, and then I had enough one day and I said something back and then it got us both kicked out. I talked to Dan about it, and then he was like ‘You’re right bro, this guy’s a piece of shit. He’s gotta go. I’m gonna bring you right back where you’ve always been and where you belong and let this fucking coward fucking sink elsewhere.”
While Covington has found a new home in the MMA Masters gym in Florida, one cannot help but think the feud between Masvidal and his former friend is far from over.
Colby Covington: “I am Jorge Masvidal’s daddy”
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Jorge Masvidal explains why he can’t stand Colby Covington
