From dear friends, to mortal enemies, the ultimate grudge match has arrived.
Back when they were small-town up and coming MMA athletes, Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal forged a friendship. The two had so many things in common, training together as teammates, they shared their aspirations for the welterweight division, wanting the other to succeed as much as they wanted to.
But, somewhere along the line, the friendship fell apart and the two turned into bitter rivals. Things got so heated between the two, Masvidal would stalk Covington on his training camps looking for a fight outside the Octagon.
Covington parted ways with ATT to head to MMA Masters in early 2020, Masvidal went so far as to suggest that while both he and Covington have been vocal supporters of former US president Donald Trump, Covington’s political opinions aren’t genuine.
“If you don’t believe me, just ask him any – what’s his favorite law that Trump passed while Trump was in presidency or anything like that. Ask that idiot anything politically related. You’ll see he’s just a fraud, man. He’s just holding up books to get triggers and things like that. But he doesn’t know anything about what he talks about. And about fighting, he’s very limited. I’m gonna show it, how limited he is.”
Back when the two were teammates, Masvidal wasn’t nearly as big as he is now, so the two have never come face to face in the octagon before. Masvidal is currently on a two fight losing streak, finished for the first time in his UFC career against champion Kamaru Usman. Meanwhile, Covington’s last octagon outing was a closely-contested unanimous loss to Usman.
After both fighters lost twice to the champion, Dana White decided to give the fans what they wanted, with the two ready to put their bad blood feud to the ring.
"I just want to get locked in a cage with this clown. I just want to be locked in a cage with Jorge 'Street Judas' Masvidal more than I want anything in the world," Covington told Submission Radio.
"That dude needs to be for all the things he said about me, but if he doesn't show up that's ok too, he loses all that street cred and respect in the fighting community.
"He's not a real fighter, that guy's a fragile little b****. He's a clown, a fake and a Judas. He turned his back on me for no reason and this is all his fault."
"I'm definitely taking at least five years off of his life. This beef is more personal and more hatred than I've ever had for anything in my entire life."
Masvidal responded with this.
"I'm going to f***ing break your face man. Everything that you said, we're gonna have to see what's up when we get in the cage, you know," he said on The MMA Hour about Covington.
All hell will break loose come Sunday 6 March, don’t miss it!