Colby Covington has revealed he leaked a rumour that he was injured ahead of his win over Jorge Masvidal.
And he is convinced his rival heard and believed the fake news in the build-up to their grudge fight at UFC 272 last night.
Covington dominated his welterweight foe over five rounds to return to winning ways after back-to-back defeats by champion Kamaru Usman.
But the day before, at the ceremonial weigh-in, Masvidal had asked: "What happened to your knee? What happened to your knee?
"You got cortisone for your knee? You got cortisone on your knee, is that true?"
Covington did not appear injured during the 25-minute bout and later claimed he had planted a story about a knee injury with a mutual friend.
"I had no injury. It's funny, I did that intentionally because I wanted to see where his loyalty was," he said.
"He said he was all team Colby but now I know he's team Jorge and you know, he's a little rat so I can't trust people going forward and I'm going to keep my circle even smaller than it is."
Covington and Masvidal were once friends and teammates before a bitter falling out that would inevitably be settled in the cage.
And Covington is eyeing a return to the ring as soon as July.
"I think international fight week is the biggest week of the year," he added.
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"You know, get one of the biggest stars in the company; Colby 'Chaos' Covington, America's champ, Donald Trump's favourite fighter, the king of Miami, now the people's champ and let's do this."
Neither man was willing to put their rivalry behind them after the fight with Masvidal saying: "It just sucks because this idiot talked about my kids.
"He’s still somebody, if I see him out in the streets, I’m going to give him everything I've got to break his f***ing jaw.
"He’s a b***h. The b***h can wrestle, though. To lose to a b***h like that, obviously no one wants to lose to a coward like that. It just sucks, man."
