LAS VEGAS – Colby Covington handled Jorge Masvidal with relative ease in the UFC 272 headliner, leaving no doubt about who the better fighter was all those years they trained together at American Top Team and who the better fighter is right now.
“I’m the king of Miami now,” Covington told reporters during the post-fight news conference at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “Jorge needs to leave the city. It’s not big enough for the two of us. He needs to leave, or he’s gonna get sparked again.”
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what you call bragging rights. You earn them after a lopsided unanimous decision victory over your former best friend-turned enemy the way Covington racked up scores of 49-46, 50-44 and 50-45 on the judges’ scorecards.
The highly anticipated showdown took place after more than two years of Covington (17-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) and Masvidal (35-16 MMA, 12-9 UFC) trashing each other in interviews and on social media. It played out how many expected, with Covington asserting his dominance through wrestling and ground-and-pound. He also showed sharp skills in the striking department.
“Nothing in there surprised me. Another dominant finish, you know, whooped his ass from second 1 to minute 25,” Covington said. “You could see in his body language he had nothing more left in the fight. I was ready for five more rounds in the parking lot. If he wants to keep doing this, we could go for five more rounds in the parking lot. Bring out another guy, American Trash Team, man. They need to keep sending guys to me, but don’t be expecting to get them back in one piece. I’m ready to take two of those fighters in one night. The king of Miami showed out tonight.”
Even after saying those words, Covington was critical of the way he fought, admitting that the personal nature of the feud got to him.
“It wasn’t my best performance. Just a lot of emotions going into it, you know?” Covington said. “That was a real friend of mine at one point in my career. He’s just such a backstabbing thief, and he talks so reckless, and he’s tried to make some false narratives to the media, make a lot of lies like he does. He’s a liar. He’s a thief. I let the emotions get the best of me, but it was still dominant. I just showed how good I was, that I am the No. 1 fighter in the world for a reason, and it wasn’t even competitive tonight.”
A lot was made about the fact that Covington gave up pay-per-view points for this fight, while Masvidal signed a new contract this week that allegedly makes him one of the top-five highest paid fighters in the promotion.
Covington indicated Masvidal was smart to secure that deal before UFC 272 arrived and took another jab at his old pal.
“There’s a reason he signed that contract before he fought me tonight,” Covington said. “He knew he couldn’t beat me. He knew if he put up his best performance like he did tonight, that was my worst performance, and it was still an easy night of work for me.”
