UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards has no intentions of fighting Colby Covington next despite UFC president Dana White saying Covington gets the next shot.
Covington officially weighed in during the UFC 286 weigh-in as a backup for the main event between Edwards and Kamaru Usman. During the event’s post-fight press conference UFC president Dana White said that Covington would get the next title shot. Edwards disagrees.
“Listen, he ain’t getting a title shot next, right. Look at the road I had to take to get there,” Edwards said on The MMA Hour. There’s no way you’re getting beat twice by the guy that I just beat twice, went out and beat [Jorge] Masvidal, and then sit out for a year and a half. Not even tweeting or nothing, just go missing for a year and then randomly pops up at the weigh-ins and it’s like, ‘OK, he’s fighting for the title next.’ It makes no sense at all. So let’s see how it plays out, he has to go out there and earn his way like I had to do.”
“Khamzat [Chimaev] and me were calling each other out for years,” continued Edwards. “This is a guy that I got matched up with three times in a row. I took the [Chimaev] fight and [Covington] didn’t take the fight and he’s getting rewarded for not taking the fight. When it was me, I got removed from the rankings. So ‘Dana White privilege’ is definitely real.”
Leon Edwards says Colby Covington is not getting the next title shot
