It’s safe to say things have gotten pretty personal between Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal.
The former friends, now foes, will settle their grudge in Saturday’s UFC 272 headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.
Masvidal (35-15 MMA, 12-8 UFC) said he plans to leave Covington in “critical condition,” and Covington (16-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC) has similar bad intentions.
“I see a lot of pain,” Covington told TMZ. “I’m going to inflict so much pain on Jorge Masvidal. He’s not going to be the same person ever again. He keeps talking about a baptism. There’s not gonngoing to be a baptism. It’s going to be a funeral. It’s Jorge Masvidal’s career-ending funeral. It’s going to be violent, and I’m not going to finish it quick.
“I could easily finish it quick because I’d do it all the time behind closed doors when we used to train. But this one, I’m going to drag it out. I’m going to make him suffer and it’ll probably be the first time in UFC history you see a guy in a main event just verbally tap out and say he can’t take no more of a beating.”
Masvidal said he started distancing himself from Covington a while ago, but what set him off was when Covington allegedly didn’t pay his boxing coach, Paulino Hernandez, which Covington vehemently denies.
“To hold this kid accountable for all the reckless words he said to the media – he’s been lying to everybody the whole time,” Covington said. “I just can’t wait to expose him in front of the world next Saturday night.
“This is a blood feud. This goes back to a brotherhood. We were eight years together – every single day, side-by-side, couldn’t leave each other, best friends, and now we’re the biggest, bitter enemies. He’s the one person on earth that I don’t give a sh*t. Anytime I see him, I want to send that guy straight to hell, and luckily I get to do it in the UFC octagon and it’s going to be bad. I’m going to make him pay. I’m going to make him suffer for just backstabbing me and turning his back and trying to run this fake narrative to the media.”
Colby Covington not looking to finish Jorge Masvidal quickly at UFC 272: ‘I see a lot of pain’