Former UFC welterweight title contender Colby Covington is still sitting on the sidelines nursing a foot injury, but that hasn’t stopped him from campaigning for a fight against the former lightweight champion.
Colby Covington hasn’t fought since his third unsuccessful title challenge last December at UFC 296, when he was dominated by current champion, Leon Edwards.
‘Chaos’ suffered a broken foot early in the fight and has since been nursing his injury on the sidelines. Fellow 170lb contender, Ian Machado Garry, tirelessly campaigned for a fight against the former interim champion, however, Covington isn’t interested.
Colby Covington slams former lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira
After Conor McGregor withdrew from his UFC 303 comeback fight against Michael Chandler, Covington claims that he offered to save the day by competing in the main event, despite having decided he didn’t want to fight the streaking 26-year-old Irishman, Machado Garry.
Although Covington didn’t get the call to compete on the crumbling card, he has now set his sights on the former UFC lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira.
Following his UFC 300 loss to Arman Tsarukyan, ‘Do Bronx’ hinted that he would be interested in moving up to welterweight for a big fight, with there being nothing left for him at lightweight.
With that, the 36-year-old American has begun to campaign for a fight against the Brazilian, labeling him as a ‘mentally weak weight bully’.
“It’s still a potential fight, the UFC hasn’t shown much interest in it but if you look at the landscape of what he said in recent interviews that he wants to go up a weight to 170(lbs), he’s a big guy,” Covington told Submission Radio.
“He’s taller than me, he weighs more than me, the guy is just a weight bully cutting to 155lbs because he wants to be stronger in there because he doesn’t have the mental edge, he’s mentally weak so he needs to have a physical edge,” Covington continued.
The 36-year-old has dared the Brazilian to stand by his word and to move up to 170lbs to fight him, claiming that he is the ‘biggest fight’ in the division.
“He’s another one of those guys with baseless words, said all these things like ‘I want big legacy fights, I want to go up to 170lbs’, well here’s your chance Charles Oliveira, I’m the biggest fight you can get, former world champion, the king of Brazil, the king of Miami, Donald Trump’s favorite fighter.
“What’s going to be bigger for your legacy Charles than coming and fighting me? You want the biggest fight, the ball is in your court let’s see if you’re a man of your word,” the American stated.
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Covington gives an update on his injury
Covington has claimed that he is feeling good and is almost back to 100% following his foot injury, stating that he will be back by Fall or Winter at the latest.
“Colby Covington feels very good now, he’s almost back to 100%, he’s been putting in a lot of rehab. I’ve been doing all of the right things to get my foot, my calf, and my ankle back to strength so I can kick again and have no bearings on me going forward,” the 36-year-old updated.
At this point, Covington is figuring out what is the ‘biggest and best business’ for himself and the UFC, with him unlikely to fight for the undisputed title again.
“Now it’s just about finding the biggest and best business for Colby Covington, the UFC knows Colby Covington only wants big fights and Colby Covington is going to wait for the big fights,” he finished.