Colby Covington believes he has to be next to face Kamaru Usman.
After Usman knocked out Jorge Masvidal at UFC 261 to defend his belt many wondered who would be next. He had a ton of options but Covington was the number one contender. However, according to “Chaos”, Usman doesn’t want to face him as he wants to fight lightweights.
“I’m the No. 1 contender,” Covington told MMA Junkie. “There’s a No. 1 next to my name (in the UFC rankings). I’m going to fight for a world title my next fight, whether it’s going to be Marty, where it’s going to be – we don’t know where, we don’t know who yet, but we will fight for the world title next. Marty’s out there, the CEO of EPO, he doesn’t want to fight. He wants to fight lightweights. He probably wants a trilogy with Masvidal. Last time it was six days, now it’s six weeks, now he probably wants to give Masvidal six months. So he’s only looking to fight lightweights. He wants Michael Chiesa, a guy who is No. 7 in the rankings that was just getting beat by (Anthony) Pettis like a year ago; now he’s not even in the UFC no more. So, it’s a complete joke.
“He needs to come see me,” Covington said. “This is a fight the fans want to see and if he doesn’t want to fight me and he’s going to run off into the sunset because he’s scared I’m going to take his health, then that’s OK. But I’m still fighting for the world title my next fight, so we’re going to prepare as if we’re fighting for the world title next.”
Colby Covington hasn’t fought since September of 2019 when he beat Tyron Woodley by TKO. In the fight before, he suffered his own fifth-round TKO loss to Kamaru Usman in a phenomenal back-and-forth bout that some thought would get an immediate rematch.
