Former interim UFC Welterweight champion, Colby Covington, has plans to move up to Middleweight. Covington has shown no respect to current UFC Middleweight champion Sean Strickland as he claims he would easily beat Strickland for the title.
Covington, who will face Leon Edwards for the Welterweight championship at UFC 296, claimed that Israel Adesanya was not focused enough in his title defense. He blamed Adesanya‘s mentality for his defeat.
Leon Edwards will defend his welterweight title against Colby Covington at UFC 296, UFC announced Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/ec4CcwLkk5
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) September 21, 2023
The American claimed that Strickland being champion opened the door for all the UFC Middleweights. In an interview with James Lynch, he said, “It just opens up the door for all the Middleweights because that’s the easiest guy in the division to beat.”
He further talked about moving up a division himself. ‘Chaos’ said, “You know, honestly, it opens up the door for me. I might go up and beat his a*s. That guy’s a f*cking punk. He got, he got his ass knocked out by Usman like a little scrub f*cking out unconscious.
“So, imagine what I would do to him as America’s champ. So, you know, that’s another fight that could be the next fight as well James I might go up to middleweight steal that middleweight strap.”
Covington seemed to give Strickland no credit for the upset victory at UFC 293. He even disrespected him further saying he has a low IQ.
Colby Covington does not believe that he has similar values as Sean Strickland
Lynch asked Covington what he thinks of Strickland as a person. Lynch claimed that Covington and Strickland have similar values and they are both outspoken. Covington disagreed wholeheartedly:
“Outspoken in the most, just obnoxious manner and just belligerent and just so low IQ, bro. That guy, that guy has no wits. I mean, he just says some of the most, just egregious nasty stuff and, you know, I can’t identify with anything with that guy. So, you know, he said some really stupid things about women and I respect women. I think it’s equality out there and everybody should be entitled to someone…”
He further reiterated his opinion of Strickland winning the title because of Adesanya’s mindset. He said, “It’s about who’s most qualified for a job so dude he’s an idiot and he’s even a weaker fighter and you know he got lucky that Izzy cashed out already.”
Colby Covington says he thinks Sean Strickland is low IQ then says he doesn’t like his comments about women because Colby respects women & stands for “equality” pic.twitter.com/j2BToqZSPk
— An0maly (@LegendaryEnergy) September 21, 2023
UFC President Dana White had discussed an immediate rematch for the title between Strickland and Adesanya. However, there is no set date for it yet. Covington’s bout against Edwards, on the other hand, will take place on December 16, 2023.
