Colby Covington doubts Conor McGregor will follow through with his call-out of UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.
In the hopes of becoming the first UFC fighter to win belts in three weight classes, McGregor has called for a title shot against 170-pound king Usman in his return. Usman has laughed off the call-out and claims he would "murder" the Irishman in a fight.
The Irishman - who is hoping to fight again in the summer or fall - has been sidelined for the good part of a year after breaking his tibia against Dustin Poirier in their UFC 264 trilogy fight. Covington is no stranger to Usman, losing out twice on the welterweight title against the pound-for-pound No.1 'Chaos' thinks McGregor is not suited to the welterweight division despite having competed at the weight class before.
"I think he's probably trying to talk himself up and get himself hyped up, but he's not going to come over here and fight real men," Covington told the ' Full Send Podcast '. "He's a great fighter, he's done good business for himself and he definitely holds a lot of L's over Dustin Poirier, but if you're talking about 170 that's not his weight class.
"I would [fight him] but he's not going to fight someone when he knows there's a zero per cent chance to win. There's no luck factor, he can't even hit lightning in a bottle, realistically I beat that guy 10 out of 10 times." McGregor has labelled Usman as a poor wrestler with no ability to submit his opponents and is confident he would knockout the champion. Usman is on a 20-fight unbeaten run and has never been knocked out in his professional career.
Should Conor McGregor fight at welterweight in his UFC return? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below
'The Nigerian Nightmare' is set to rematch Leon Edwards in July once his hand is healed up from a recent surgery. Usman thinks McGregor is attention-seeking by calling him out and has been doing too much talking with his fingers.
"I don't take anything that he says seriously because I understand he's just a clout chaser. He's just looking for clout. He likes to attach his name to the guy at the top of the sport, just to announce his resurgence," he told Sky Sports. "That's what he does. If I'm fighting, he's going to tweet something. He wants to keep his name out there, that's why his fingers are doing the talking nowadays."
