Exclusive: Colby Covington Reveals How He Found Out He Wasn’t Getting UFC Title Shot
It was recently announced that Tyron Woodley would be defending the UFC Welterweight Title against Kamaru Usman in the co-main event of UFC 235.
UFC Interim Champion Colby Covington isn’t pleased about the events that have transpired, saying that shady dealings with Ali Abdelaziz may have lead to the fight happening.
“I found that news out through my agent Dan Lambert, he just called and he didn’t understand it. He’s just like ‘I don’t get it, you know. You’re number one in the world, you have a belt…you went to the White House. You did something that has never been done before from any other MMA fighter.’ He was just as puzzled as I was and we’ve been trying to put the clues together, like why is this happening? ‘(Lambert says) you were going to fight him in January, you were going to fight Woodley in January in California…you agreed to that…but Woodley didn’t want to fight there because he was hurt supposedly. You agreed to fight him in the Garden in November, Woodley said he was good to go and all of a sudden…last minute, he wasn’t good to go.’ Nothing adds up, the only thing that adds up is just the shady dealings behind the scenes that people don’t know about. This is a direct result of Ali (Abdelaziz) being tight and close with the UFC and he’s done them some favors, so he’s owed some favors,” says Covington in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s James Lynch.
Covington himself has been out of action for some time, last competing in the co-main event of UFC 225.
While the news was certainly shocking for Covington to hear, it won’t stop the fighter from becoming the best that he can be…inside or outside of the UFC.
“I still don’t even feel like its not gonna take place, it doesn’t feel real…but that’s life. Sometimes you don’t get what you want, you don’t get what you deserve. You gotta keep going along, you can’t let one little thing in your life…one bad incident dictate your life and dictate how your feeling…your emotions. You just gotta stay positive and keep moving forward, the best thing will turn out for me James. I could promise you that, we’ve talked before and I didn’t have this belt before. I didn’t go to the White House before we talked, I’ve called many shots before and I made all my shots. I know I still have a loaded deck James, I know my decks loaded. I still hold very strong cards, whether its in the UFC or somewhere else. I’m gonna make a lot of money and I’m gonna be fighting for another seven/eight years…winning. No one can stop me right now James, you haven’t seen my potential…I’m just getting started. I’m getting better everyday at American Top Team, the worlds greatest gym and the best is yet to come from me,” says Covington.
The interim welterweight champion still sits at #1 in the UFC Welterweight Division rankings and the man sitting directly behind him in those rankings is getting the next shot at UFC gold.
