As heated online exchanges fail to turn into a fight contract, Colby Covington says he’d ideally like his UFC return to be on the ‘biggest show’ of the year.
Colby Covington has certainly lived up to his ‘Chaos’ moniker in recent months, albeit on social media rather than in the UFC octagon, with the American welterweight now eyeing a return this summer on the ‘biggest show’ of 2024.
The Covington-Garry fight contract fiasco continues
The back-and-forth between Covington and Ian Machado Garry recently reached new lows when the brash American gave three ‘stipulations’ that Garry had to fulfill, which included matters about the Irishman’s personal life.
Since then, Garry fired back by suggesting that the pair compete in an ‘I Quit’ match where the loser would retire from the sport – even stating that he’d make Covington surrender directly to former US president Donald Trump.
Yet between all the insults and social media videos, mentions of a potential date and/or location for the fight have remained few and far between – with Covington only now stating that he’d like to return this summer.
Colby Covington reveals when he wants his UFC return fight
Speaking on episode #169 of the SOSCAST podcast, Covington shared that he wants his UFC return to be part of International Fight Week, which is set to take place in Las Vegas between June 24 and June 30.
“It’s always big cities and bright lights every time I fight, I’m always on the top of the marquee so you know when I fight next, it’ll be a big pay-per-view blockbuster, [and] the biggest show that the UFC does is International Fight Week.”
“I’m hoping that I’ll fight International Fight Week, [but it] doesn’t matter who I fight,” said Covington, with International Fight Week set to culminate in the UFC 303 PPV event at the T-Mobile Arena.
UFC 303 is scheduled to go down on June 29, 2024, and currently only has one fight announced, Cody Durden vs Carlos Hernandez, although this is the same card that has been touted by Conor McGregor for his return fight also.
Back to Machado Garry, and Covington acknowledged that it’s him who holds the leverage in the promotion: “I told him you know if he wants to do these three stipulations, we can fight but if he doesn’t you know I got to move up in the rankings, I’m not trying to go behind me.”
Colby Covington throws shade at ‘washed’ Sean Strickland
Earlier in the same interview, Covington also took aim at former middleweight world champion Sean Strickland, calling him “washed” and stating that ‘Tarzan’ moved to 185lbs because “he couldn’t handle my division.”
“He got beat up and knocked out, he had to leave divisions because he couldn’t cut it. I think he’s a bum and has been hit in the head too many times – he’s got CTE straight up, anything that guy says you can’t follow along.”
Covington also alleged that Strickland is currently under investigation in Las Vegas: no evidence has been offered to support this claim.