Colby Covington has countered Jorge Masvidal's pre-fight prediction by promising to put his rival in a "death chair".
Former training partners and close friends Covington and Masvidal will settle their bitter feud at UFC 272 after two years of back and forth.
The pair have traded personal insults and allegations in the lead up to their grudge fight, with Masvidal stating Covington will be in "critical condition" after he knocks him out.
Covington has now given a pre-fight prediction of his own as he depicted the violent intentions on his mind.
"I’m going to inflict a lot of pain on this guy. He’s talked recklessly, just a lot of lies and trying to make me look like the bad guy and trying to put himself in a positive light," Covington told reporters.
"I’m not going to think about all the emotions and all the energy and the past. I’m just going to think about the present and the moment and putting that guy in his death chair.”
Covington claims Masvidal was "jealous" after he won the interim UFC welterweight title in 2018 which led to their relationship collapsing.
But Masvidal has given a very different reason to their fall-out, stating Covington didn't pay their coach Paulinho Hernandez five per cent of his purse for winning the belt.
Covington, who has refuted the claim of shorting his former coach, said he isn't getting pay-per-view points for UFC 272.
“I [forwent] the pay-per-view. I don’t care about the pay-per-view for this fight. This is a personal fight. I want to come and put on a show for the UFC and show that I’m deserving of being a lifetime UFC fighter," he added.
"I didn’t care about the money for this fight. This is about settling a blood rivalry, this is a long time coming. This guy has been holding it off as long as he could, until he had no chance, no other opportunities.
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"This is the biggest opportunity he can get to pay his alimony, to pay his child support, so of course he’s gotta come and take this losing paycheck."
Covington last fought at UFC 268 against Kamaru Usman when he was defeated by the pound-for-pound No.1 for the second time after first losing to him in 2019.
Masvidal is yet to get back in the win column since his consecutive defeats to Usman, withdrawing from his planned bout with Leon Edwards last December due to injury.
Both Covington and Masvidal are aiming to get back in the welterweight title picture with a win over each other, but they will first need to end their rivalry for good.
