UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley claims that the UFC is just letting Covington ‘have fun’ and wouldn’t dare match him against “Chaos”
Woodley appeared on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour where he discussed recent controversy involving the American Top Team welterweight.
“The Chosen One” was also dismissive of the idea that Covington may be in line for a shot at his title:
“They know better than that,” Woodley said. “They just let him have his fun. This dude is talking about the money fight, and not even to be arrogant or whatever, he’s never seen a six- or seven-figure paycheck in his life. Like, if he’s fighting, I can sit there and watch television and get pay-per-view checks that come in that are maybe five to 10 times the amount of his entire purse. So why would I sit there and try to put him in a position to finally get to the point where he’s making a six-figure payday?
“That’s not my job. He has to do that, and the old-school way. Look at Kamaru Usman — how’s he doing it? He’s doing it by fighting guys. He’s looking for fights. He’s not faking like his foot’s hurt. Colby Covington could fight him right now, Dec. 30, but he said his foot’s hurt. So, I just don’t have any respect for guys like that. I think it’s very disgraceful to our sport. It was built on hard work, guys taking big fights.”
With the UFC’s welterweight division boasting arguably the strongest pool of talent in the promotion, Woodley cannot see Covington skipping the queue and straight to a title shot. Should what he sees as the unlikely happen, however, the 35-year-old believes it will ‘not end well’ for the promotion’s new self-appointed villain:
“He’s doing what he feels he needs to do to try to get (a title shot), but I’m telling you, sometimes people ask for something and it’s something that they don’t want,” Woodley said. “If he actually gets himself in position to be across the Octagon with me — one, two, three, whatever fights it takes him to get there — I promise you that it’s not going to end well for him. He’s never going to fight again.”
