LAS VEGAS – Kamaru Usman’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, thinks it’s only a matter of time before the UFC welterweight champion puts an emphatic end to his rivalry with Colby Covington.
Usman (19-1 MMA, 14-0 UFC) is projected to rematch Covington before the end of the year, and Abdelaziz said the fight is close to being a done deal. It’s no secret that Abdelaziz, the CEO of Dominance MMA, is not a fan of Covington (16-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC), even getting into an altercation with the former interim champ two years ago at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. He thinks Covington is genuinely a bad person and can’t wait for Usman to make him pay.
“That’s the fight,” Abdelaziz told MMA Junkie on Monday. “Listen, last time they fought, he broke his jaw. This fight, I hope he becomes blind or something bad happens to him because he’s a very bad guy. He’s on the same piece of sh*t level as Conor. They’re head to head. He’s a racist scumbag. I think he plays the race card, but I think he really is. He insults people’s religion, wife. You see him talking about Dustin – he said Dustin Poirier’s wife is a prop. How are you gonna say that? This is a guy he used to train with, sweat with, eat with. How are you gonna talk about him like that?
“We know what happened last time when we met him at the Palm, and he called the police on Werdum and myself. I think Dana White is right: This is the fight. He’s the promoter and at the end of the day, you want Colby Covington drinking out of a straw or not walking for a year or two years because he’s a decent fighter. He’s not a great fighter. He’s gonna be there hanging out, but I believe Usman will hurt him really, really badly.”
Covington gave Usman perhaps his toughest test to date when he pushed the champion in their first outing at UFC 245. Though Usman ended up stopping Covington late in Round 5, one judge had Covington up 3-1 heading into the fifth.
But since then, Usman has shown marketed improvements in his striking. He’s gone on to notch three more title defenses, with back-to-back finishes of Gilbert Burns and Jorge Masvidal, and Abdelaziz has no doubt that Usman beats Covington handily in the rematch.
“Kamaru Usman is the pound-for-pound greatest fighter in the world today,” Abdelaziz said. “It’s not Jon Jones, it’s not Israel Adesanya, it’s not anybody. He’s the pound-for-pound king, he’s beaten the whole division, and honestly I want to see Kamaru at one point go to middleweight. I know Israel is his friend. I don’t want to see them fight, but maybe if something happens and Israel isn’t the champion anymore, I think he deserves it. This is what I want him to do. .. I want him to become a two-division champ, and I think he can do it. I think he can beat anybody.”
He continued, “Colby Covington is a dead man. He’s a dead man walking, the clock is ticking, and he’s gonna get what he asked for very violently. Kamaru Usman is not the same fighter. We’ve seen him improve every fight, and that’s it.”
Kamaru Usman’s manager: ‘Racist scumbag’ Colby Covington is ‘a dead man walking’