UFC News: Colby Covington claims Jorge Masvidal is making up stories to hype up a possible fight
Friendships in MMA don't take too long to turn into rivalries and it is no secret that former training partners and welterweight contenders Jorge 'The Gamebred' Masvidal and Colby 'Chaos' Covington are not friends anymore.
The pair trained together at the American Top Team (ATT) in Florida. They were tight and helped each other prepare for various fights inside the Octagon but over the past few weeks, their relationship has soured to a point where they don't mind stepping inside the cage against each other.
Masvidal is a liar, says Covington
Masvidal recently stated that Covington owes money to one of their coaches at ATT and during a recent appearance on Submission Radio, Covington shot down the allegation, stating that Masvidal's comments were nothing but a desperate attempt to hype up a possible fight between the pair. (h/t MMA Fighting)
“No, there’s no truth to that. Jorge is drawing at straws right now. He has nothing else to say about me because he knows he can’t attack my fighting skills because he knows my fighting skills speak for themselves. And to be honest, he’s never won one second of any type of rounds we’ve ever trained together. And he knows that deep down inside. So he’s just looking for something to promote a future fight." - said Covington.
Friends turned rivals - good for business?
Chaos agrees that their storied past does make a fight between them quite the prospect. He also admitted that 'MMA is an individual sport' and there is no place for friendship in the fight game.
“We may have to fight each other. Former best friends turned foes. And that’s how this sport is. There’s no sports, there’s no friends in this type of sport. It’s an individual sport and it’s business, so we had to part our friendship."
"He’s making up lies, man, he’s trying to say that I owe his coach money. And I can show you the receipts. I’ll go get the receipts right now and show you. I overpaid him if anything. The only percentage that I owe is to American Top Team. I pay them five percent every fight, and that’s the only people I have to pay. I have no obligation to pay any other coaches. All the other coaches that I pay is on me if I want to pay them or not, and I always paid his coach, man. I gave him five to ten grand per fight, and I have the receipts too. So, you know, he’s lying, man. He has nothing else to say.”
Covington further added that tensions between him and Masvidal started brewing in the gym, way before they started engaging in verbal spats in public.
“We were pushing each other in the gym. We’d yell in the gym, ‘Hey, who’s gonna be the first fighter to get a million-dollar fight,’ this and that. We were competing to push each other to these great limits, and here we are now, and now we have to act like kids? I mean, I’m not acting like a kid, he’s acting like a kid. But here we are, and you can’t be professional and understand this game?"
“Yeah, it’s business and we’re not gonna be friends, we’re gonna have to fight each other. But it is what it is, man. Just grow up and let’s not play these childish games where you’re making up lies and you’re saying stupid stuff that isn’t true, let’s just be honest and call things the way they are, call a spade a spade. But apparently, that’s hard for him. He’s a Miami little street thug.”
Colby is set to challenge Kamaru Usman for the UFC welterweight title at the headliner of UFC 245 while Masvidal goes toe to toe with Nate Diaz in the main event of UFC 244 for the one time only BMF title. Both Covington and Masvidal are training at ATT for their upcoming bouts.
While the friends turned foes are awaiting separate battles at the moment, there is no reason why the pair might not step inside the Octagon soon to settle some old scores.
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