Colby Covington has laughed off rival Jorge Masvidal's "cheat" claim after he displayed an eye injury caused by a poke during their fight.
'Chaos' secured a vital win to maintain his spot as the leading contender in the welterweight division by dominating Masvidal on the night.
Masvidal complained of being poked in the eye during the opening round of their UFC 272 duel but referee waved away his protests and did not pause the fight.
Covington has now responded to Masvidal's claims on an Instagram story, with a laughing emoji followed by a backing sound of Justin Timberlake's hit track Cry Me A River.
The beaten man posted a picture of the bruising on his eyelid, tweeting: "Almost took [my] eyes out but all good you cheating f*** see you soon."
Masvidal is now on a significant losing streak which is the worst of his UFC career having also lost twice to Kamaru Usman in successive title challenges.
He continued his criticism of the incident after the fight pointing out referee Dean's lack of interference in the exchanges after the fight.
"The eye poke was pretty bad man, the only thing that's hurting on me right now is the f***ing eye poke, my eye is still throbbing right now," he said.
"I've had a couple mishaps with Herb Dean, I just don't get it why he didn't fix the action. He threw a punch, missed, then immediately just jabbed me in the f***ing eyeball.
"I'm not going to take nothing away from him winning the fight because that was just one sequence, but it would have been cool if he would have stopped it there because he poked the s*** out of my eye."
His rival Covington has continued his positive record outside of facing welterweight champion Usman, but now faces a wait for any trilogy clash against the Nigerian.
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The American star called out Dustin Poirier in the aftermath of the clash but could also face other welterweight contenders which include Khamzat Chimaev and Gilbert Burns.
Another fight which could present itself is a potential tilt with Israel Adesanya who is currently the middleweight champion.
However Usman believes that Covington should continue to "sell" his profile by beating other contenders to earn a trilogy for the title.
"Colby has got to sell himself, he is doing the right things right now. Right now it doesn't make sense, there is a couple more fights he needs to take on," he told ESPN.
"Go out and sell yourself, there's a guy in that division that everyone is kind of giving all this hoobla about [Khamzat Chimaev].
"You haven't fought Gilbert Burns, you haven't fought Vicente Luque and you haven't fought Chimaev. So go out there and get a couple wins.
"Belal Muhammed is there as well, he needs to go out there and shut down some of the other contenders because right now they could leapfrog him for a shot."
