LAS VEGAS – Using his own words, Jorge Masvidal thinks Colby Covington is a b*tch – but a b*tch who can wrestle well.
Following the conclusion of UFC 272, Masvidal (35-16 MMA, 12-9 UFC), despite his loss, spoke to reporters after his unanimous decision loss Saturday at T-Mobile Arena against his bitter rival and former friend Covington (17-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC).
The difference in skill was most apparent in the department in which a majority of the fight took place, which was the wrestling. Over the course of five rounds, Masvidal struggled to escape the clutches of Covington. Even when he did, the moments on the feet were brief and always had the same ending of being squished against the fence or taken back to the canvas.
If he could hit the restart button on his career, Masvidal may have pursued a different path into the combat sports realm.
“I wrestled like sh*t,” Masvidal said. “I lost a lot of exchanges. If I were to won them, on a technical level, things could’ve gone a little bit differently if I made him expend more energy on certain takedowns. That first takedown I gave up, he took my back. He rode me pretty good. That got me pretty flat going into the next round. I felt like I won a lot of the exchanges. I felt like on the feet, I definitely did the more damage. But it’s a fight. I mean, sh*t, man.
“If I could’ve done it all over again, I would’ve gone to college and wrestling my ass off and got my grades up to be able to stuff all these guys up, then just keep it on the feet. I was just flat on the wrestling, brother.”
Moving forward, that’s the biggest takeaway for Masvidal, who in two of his most recent three performances (all losses) has done enough to survive on the ground, but not enough to then turn it into offense of his own. With fighters like Leon Edwards, Khamzat Chimaev, and Gilbert Burns also at the top of the welterweight division, that’s a problem that needs to be fixed moving forward.
“If I fight another wrestler, I need to make sure I can deal with this thing,” Masvidal said. “It’s all been tough fights with me with the wrestlers. Thinking, ‘Is he going to shoot on me?’ so I don’t open up as much on the feet as I should. Then, I get in big scrambles and I get out-scrambled, so I need to fix the wrestling, man.”
There was no love lost between the two former training partners, who have become enemies in recent years. The build-up was nasty and personal with Covington even bringing up Masvidal’s family. The loss stung more than usual, admitted Masvidal, considering these circumstances.
“To lose to a b*tch like that, all he does is talk about people’s kids, religion, nations,” Masvidal said. “Obviously, no one wants to lose to a coward like that. I felt like I lost the wrestling exchanges. The fight-fight, you know? Whatever. I know I did damage. I think I dropped him twice. It just sucks, man. F*cking flat on the wrestling. He jumped on, and he was able to take me down. There was one or two times, I felt him getting real tired on the takedowns and then all of a sudden he got that takedown, and I was stuffing the second and third attempts. The fourth one, he got me down. He’s got good control when he’s on top. … He’s a b*tch. The b*tch can wrestle, though.”
‘The b*tch can wrestle’: Jorge Masvidal ponders longtime issue he hopes to fix after UFC 272 loss
