MIAMI – Colby Covington doesn’t see Saturday’s marquee welterweight matchup playing a factor in the UFC title picture.
Streaking Leon Edwards (18-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) will take on fan favorite Nate Diaz in a five-round fight at UFC 263, where both men expect to emerge as No. 1 contenders for a shot at champion Kamaru Usman.
But Covington (16-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC), who’s been declared the next title challenger by UFC president Dana White, thinks their matchup has no significance to the division. Despite Edwards’ impressive nine-fight unbeaten run, Covington thinks that even with a win over Diaz (20-12 MMA, 15-10 UFC), he will not have faced any legitimate contenders.
“It makes sense that ‘Edward Scissorhands’ Leon Edwards wants to fight Nate Diaz, another loser and unranked guy – another guy that he’s beaten that has nothing,” Covington recently told MMA Junkie. “He’s not a top-three, top-five fighter, and that’s what ‘Edward Scissorhands’ likes to do.
“He likes to pick these easy fights with these guys that aren’t even relevant to the division and hopefully he’s going to get a little hype from it because nobody cares about him. The guy is literally worthless. He’s a mumbling, fumbling idiot, and it makes sense that he’s going to fight Nate Diaz because they’ve both got marbles in their mouth when they talk all the time.”
Since giving Usman his toughest test to date in a back-and-forth war at UFC 245, Covington has been dead set on getting a rematch. He reiterated he thought his fight with Usman was stopped too early and vows to be the one to take out the dominant champion.
Covington hasn’t competed since stopping former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in September 2020, but is hopeful he will finally lock horns with Usman again in the final quarter of 2021.
Colby Covington: Leon Edwards won’t get title shot with win over ‘loser’ Nate Diaz at UFC 263
