There's no love lost between Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal ahead of Saturday's UFC272 main event. 'I promise Jorge Masvidal will never be the same again after Saturday night,' Covington tells JustinBarrasso
“T-Mobile [Arena] has a lot of exits, so let’s just hope he gets into the cage with me."Welcome to The Weekly Takedown, Sports Illustrated’s in-depth look at MMA. Every Thursday, this column will offer insight and information on the most noteworthy stories in the fight world.
Carrying the nickname of “Chaos”, Covington relishes the chance to play mind games with opponents. He is willing to insult people, families, and countries, which Masvidal believes crosses a line.. “You don’t need to insult wives or religions or kids. This is not how you sell pay-per-views, and I want the next generation to see this. Nothing about him sits well with me. I’m putting an end to this.”
Covington and Masvidal first became close over a decade ago in 2011 when they became teammates with American Top Team. Masvidal even invited Covington to live with him for a stretch. But both agree that is all a distant memory, with Masvidal claiming the friendship dissolved after Covington opted not to pay striking coach Paulino Hernandez, who is a father figure to Masvidal, an agreed-upon percentage. Unsurprisingly, Covington has a different recollection of how the situation unfolded.
“I beat Demian right after Jorge lost to him, and he got jealous, he got bitter,” said Covington. “The thing with him is he wanted to see me do well, but as soon as I was doing better than him, it became a problem. He didn’t like the attention I was getting, or that I was making more money than him, or that I was higher than him in the rankings.