“I Was Like a Mentor to Him” – Tyron Woodley Opens Up On His Past Relationship With Colby Covington

Colby Covington has gone on to pick a rivalry with both his former teammates and training partners, Jorge Masvidal and Tyron Woodley. The former Welterweight Champion trained alongside Colby Covington during his fight against Rory McDonald back in 2014. Woodley opened up on his relationship with Colby Covington, who had not made his professional MMA debut by then.

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“Colby hadn’t fought a professional fight yet. So, he was an amateur fighter. He was really trying to find his way like many of these Welterweights. I was almost like a mentor to him. Like you need to find this guy, this guy is a good fight. You know, you need to set up like a press kit or media kit, so you can get sponsors. I paid him, I paid him well, especially where he was at in his career. He wasn’t even going to make it into the fight, I paid him great every week to train with him.”

Tyron Woodley and Colby Covington will take on each other in the main event of UFC Vegas 11 this weekend. Covington is coming off a TKO loss to Kamaru Usman at UFC 245, while Woodley is coming back to back losses against Usman and Gilbert Burns.

Tyron Woodley takes on Colby Covington at UFC Vegas 11

In what can only be called a grudge-match, Colby Covinton and Tyron Woodley will finally lock horns inside the octagon. Both the fighters were scheduled to face each other couple of years ago, when Covington was the interim Champion. However, Covington fell prey to an injury, leading to Kamaru Usman fighting for the title belt. Woodley dropped the title belt in a lopsided decision loss, and failed to impress in his octagon return against Gilbert Burns early this year.

“He just wants to beat me so bad. It’s funny. But a lot of these guys do.” Woodley said in the lead up to fight.

Colby Covington also shared his thoughts on the match-up and revealed that he plans to finish Woodley inside the octagon. If Covington is able to do that, he would become the first fighter in the history of UFC to pick up a stoppage victory against the former Champion Tyron Woodley.

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“The way I am going to beat Tyron Woodley this weekend is not going to be by decision. It’s going to be violent. And the way I finish him, I feel that puts me in the driver seat to get another title shot.” Covington said.