The UFC’s welterweight division is currently in a peculiar state of limbo, with Tyron Woodley’s next opponent in a state of flux after Woodley injured his hand in his UFC 228 victory over Darren Till. Colby Covington had won the interim championship only three months prior at UFC 225 in a win over Rafael dos Anjos and was targeted to challenge Tyron Woodley on multiple occasions following that achievement. Now, it appears the UFC have decided to move in another direction, with the promotion offering Kamaru Usman the fight against Woodley at UFC 235 instead. Appearing on “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show” on Monday, Covington took the time to break down the timeline of the events as well as his perplexity of how the situation has transpired:
“I was ready to fight Nick Diaz and Tyron Woodley (at UFC 230),” Covington said. “I accepted both those fights. And it was only about three weeks before the show they said, ‘Hey, we couldn’t put these fights together. Nick Diaz doesn’t want to fight; Woodley doesn’t want to fight, either. So we’re going to try to make Woodley for January 26th in Anaheim.”
“And then all of a sudden, they’re saying I have to come fight on January (19th) on ESPN against some guy that’s behind me just to earn a shot at the title against Woodley six weeks later. What sense does that make?
“You want me to fight when the champion’s ready six weeks later?”
Colby Covington was then left to theorize why the UFC has decided to reverse course. All Covington could do when met with this task was to speculate:
“I don’t know, to be honest,” Covington said when asked if he’s being punished for declining Kamaru Usman for UFC Brooklyn. “They could be punishing me. They could be punishing Woodley. They hate Woodley so much that they almost don’t want me and him to fight because then it’s going to show that he can draw. This is a big money fight at welterweight, and I feel like they don’t want to give him that recognition. They don’t want him to have a big pay per view draw.”
“So I don’t know if I’m being punished or if Woodley’s being punished, but it’s not right. There’s a lot of corruption going on right now.”
“There’s one thing that me and Woodley agree on. We literally don’t agree on anything. This isn’t manufactured beef. We actually hate each other.
“We actually, genuinely hate each other and want to kill each other inside that Octagon.”
“So we agree on one thing and one thing only…and that’s that we want to fight each other next.”
What are your thoughts on Colby Covington’s side of the story behind the current limbo at the top of the welterweight division?
