Kamaru Usman has stated on multiple occasions now that Colby Covington has turned down a fight against him on five separate occasions. But since defeating Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 to become the new UFC welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman and the rest of the world are well aware that his fight with Colby Covington will finally be taking place.
While Usman was calling out Covington and accusing the former interim welterweight champion of ducking him, Covington would usually restrain for even addressing Usman directly or mentioning him by name. Now, in a recently revealed plot twist, Colby Covington states that it was Kamaru Usman who first turned down a fight against him and that it was him, not Covington, who did so on multiple occasion:
“I was begging to fight him earlier in my career,” Covington told MMA Fighting. “You can go and ask (ATT owner) Dan Lambert right now. That’s not a lie. We asked to fight him when Glenn Robinson was his manager and he turned the fight down three or four times, and this was right after he won The Ultimate Fighter, the ATT vs. Blackzilians [season], so I was already looking at him. I’m like, ‘Let’s fight, man. You beat all these guys from my gym, but you didn’t beat the best welterweight from our gym, and I am the best welterweight from our gym.’”
Colby Covington did not address Kamaru Usman’s claims that it was Covington who turned down a fight against him multiple times recently, but he has shared in the past that the reason he rejected a fight against Usman for the UFC’s ESPN+ debut in Brooklyn is because he was already promised a title shot against Tyron Woodley and was also ranked above Kamaru Usman.
Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman are polar opposites and you will not find the two athletes agreeing on much, but there is one quote from Colby Covington that Kamaru Usman has echoed in the past and that he no doubt still stands firm on to this day:
“We’ve been destined to clash for a long time,” Covington said.
Now, all we need is for both men to put pen to paper and settle their differences once and for all.
Do you believe that Kamaru Usman turned down a fight against Colby Covington “three or four times?”
