There’s an old adage that says ‘the truth lies somewhere in the middle’ and that’s probably the best approach to take when hearing Colby Covington and Tyron Woodley talk about their past training sessions together.
The bitter welterweight rivals, who will square off later this year, have been sniping back and forth at each other for months but inevitably the conversation eventually turns to the times when they trained together at American Top Team in Florida.
Now the one concession each will make is that they haven’t trained together in several years with Woodley rarely working out of the main American Top Team academy in Florida as he typically trains closer to home in St. Louis or in Milwaukee with coach Duke Roufus.
Still, Covington and Woodley can rarely miss a chance to take a stab at the other one when questions about their training sessions are raised.
“I’ve already melted him at the gym at American Top Team multiple times in sparring,” Covington said following his most recent win at UFC 225. “That’s the reason we lost our friendship cause I beat him up so bad the last time we trained together. The little Hollywood soy boy, I’m not going to be happy until me and Tyron Woodley meet face to face and we’re actually fighting. Until then everything he says is fake news.”
“I’ve already melted him at the gym at American Top Team multiple times in sparring,” Colby Covington on Tyron Woodley
Woodley has claimed that he toyed with Covington in training and sent him packing after the former All-American wrestler couldn’t hang with him during sparring sessions.
Covington says it’s the exact opposite as he pushed Woodley to the breaking point time and time again when training together and that’s part of the reason why they don’t workout anymore.
“This was three years ago in 2015 when I wasn’t even half the fighter I am now. I’m a completely different fighter now. I’m younger and I’ve only gotten better. He’s older and he’s living up his Hollywood gimmick so he’s a lot dumber,” Covington said. “Those training sessions were pretty easy for me. The first round, just put a pace on him — that porn star pace with all my chicks in the bedroom that I’m keeping every night — I’d take that first round and put a lot of pressure on him. Put him inside the clinch just walk him down and make him fight. Literally all he has is a right hand. He’s so predictable.
“By the second round he was so winded he said I’m not doing anymore. We were supposed to do five rounds and he said ‘nope I’m done today’. He doesn’t have anything. He has a lot of muscles and it takes a lot of oxygen to feed those muscles. He’s an easy match for me. My pace will just melt him.”
Covington says his past training sessions with Woodley are a big part of the reason he’s so confident he’ll beat him when they finally meet to unify the welterweight titles later this year.
“That’s why RDA (Rafael dos Anjos) was my toughest fight because he has very good cardio and he’s very well rounded. RDA’s the second best fighter in the welterweight division behind me cause I’m the best,” Covington said.
“Tyron Woodley is probably third or fourth. It’s going to be an easy fight when I finally get my hands on Tyron Woodley.”
Will Colby Covington shut down Tyron Woodley when they meet? Sound off in the comments section and let us know!
