It looks like 2021 could mark a huge transition for Covington from professional MMA to professional wrestling, with the goal to make wrestling real again.
“Those guys are true sports athlete entertainers,” Covington said on What The Heck (via Alexander K. Lee of MMA Fighting). “To put on a show like that for the world while everybody’s at home watching, you don’t have the same energy from the crowd and the same adrenaline that you get when you walk into a full arena, so to see those guys out there putting it all on the line, I respect those guys. Those guys are some of the hardest workers on earth. I hope to join them someday. I’ve got a lot of love and respect for Vince McMahon and what he’s done for the business model of the WWE. My thing is I want to go to WWE and make wrestling real again. I want people to get behind it and think that it’s real. You ain’t going off the top rope on me because I’ll take you out with a double leg, you ain’t gonna get up there. So I’m looking to go over to WWE and make wrestling real again in the near future. Until then I’m gonna be retiring all the old fogeys over here in the UFC.”
Covington has made several pro wrestling related appearances in the past for Impact Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Syndicate and other organizations.
The former interim champion does have several friends in the wrestling business and he believes there is going to be a smooth transition to pro wrestling next year.
“I’ve been talking to Bobby Lashley, my friend, he’s a teammate, and Kurt Angle obviously, I walk out to his music for my fights, I keep in good touch with those guys,” Covington said. “And Ronda Rousey, the greatest women’s mixed martial artist of all time. It’s good to learn from her and see her and how she’s handling the transition from MMA to pro wrestling. I think I’m gonna have a good grasp of it. I grew up amateur wrestling and I know how to act, I know how to sell, and everybody knows I know how to entertain so I think it’s gonna be a smooth transition when I go to the WWE in 2021.”
There has been no word yet from the WWE as to whether or not they have spoken to Covington about competing there in 2021.
