After UFC 261, no. 1 ranked welterweight Colby Covington gave his reaction to the events that took place at the UFC’s first full-capacity event since UFC 248 in March 2020.
“Chaos” gave his reaction on Submission Radio to Kamaru Usman’s devastating second round knockout of his former friend and training partner, no. 5 ranked welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal.
Covington said the outcome of the main event did not surprise him in the slightest.
“As far as Marty Fakenewsman getting the knockout? Of course, it’s not surprising. There’s a reason he handpicked that fight. There’s a reason he fought that guy back to back,” [Masvidal]’s washed up. What was that like something like 20 losses on the Judas’ record?” Covington said.
In between his personal shots at Masvidal, Covington said that from a technical standpoint, Masvidal did not take a proper approach in his striking with Usman.
“He was trying to defend the takedown with his hands down and you can’t fight that guy like that,” Covington said. “You got to fight [Usman] straight up and come forward and come at him.”
“Chaos” also said that despite Usman’s knockout finish of Masvidal, Covington was, in the words of Georges St-Pierre “not impressed by his performance”.
“No way I’m impressed by that. Did you guys not see how gassed he was at the end of the first round? I mean, Marty Juiceman, he’s the CEO of EPO. So I didn’t see anything special. If anything, he needs to find a new chemist, a new scientist to get him some new formulated drugs ‘cause he looked like shit. He was gassed at the end of that first round. He was done. He’s fighting me in there, he doesn’t last three rounds fighting like that.”
In the post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White made it clear that Covington was up next to fight Usman in a rematch for the welterweight title.
While White says Covington is up next for the welterweight title shot, Usman seems uninterested about the potential rematch.
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“The Nigerian Nightmare” indicated in the post-fight press conference that he wants the next challenger for his belt to show him something, but the way Covington looks at it, Usman does not get to decide who is next.
“He’s not the matchmaker. He doesn’t decide who’s next. I’m the number one welterweight in the world. Go look at the rankings. I’m undeniable, and soon I’m going to be undefeatable when I get back in there,” Covington said. “He can make up any excuse he wants, ‘People need to impress me’. Doesn’t matter, kid. I’m number one in the world, junior. You’re gonna fight me like the UFC and Dana want and the people want or you’re gonna fight nobody.”
As far as an ideal date for this potential welterweight title bout, if “Chaos” could have it his way, the fight would go down in late Summer.
“Looking on the calendar their pay-per-views are pretty much booked up to July so it makes sense to go in August,” Covington said. “[Usman] didn’t take any damage, man. There’s no reason that this fight should be dragged out, or later in the year than it needs to be. So let’s get this going on the first pay per view in August.”
Despite the fact that Usman may want a challenger next that is not named Colby Covington, it appears the bitter welterweight rivals will see each other again in the near future.
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Colby Covington wasn’t impressed by Kamaru Usman’s UFC 261 KO win
