COCONUT CREEK, Fla. – Jorge Masvidal enters his next UFC bout against a former friend and training partner turned bitter rival.
At UFC 272, former interim welterweight champion Colby Covington will stand across from Masvidal (35-15 MMA, 12-8 UFC) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, for a rare non-title pay-per-view headliner.
Although the two welterweights were once friends, they have since fallen out of favor, and are leaning into their beef before they trade leather inside the cage. According to Masvidal, the issue stems from Covington (16-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC) failing to pay his striking coach an agreed-upon percentage for his services. Prior to the incident, Masvidal claims he was in the process of distancing himself from Covington, but things unraveled quicker than expected.
“There’s numerous interviews with him calling me his best friend,” Masvidal told MMA Junkie. “I really wouldn’t do that because I would see signs in the way he treated his family, the way he talked about his sister, the way he talked about his mom. …There’s three sides to every story: there’s yours, theirs, and the truth. So, I was just like, this guy’s interesting.”
Beyond how Masvidal perceived Covington’s treatment of his family, there were a number of peers in the fight game who were rubbed the wrong way. Covington and former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones were roommates at Central Community College. Looking back, Jones identified a pattern of Covington’s former American Top Team teammates discovering a distaste for his character, Masvidal included.
“With Jon Jones, he had numerous situations,” Masvidal explained. “He would always talk bad about Jon Jones. (Tyron) Woodley, I was there for the whole thing. Jon Jones, I wasn’t there in college with them, but the whole Woodley thing, I was and Woodley brought him out. He was giving him like $1,000 a week, something crazy like that when this guy was an amateur just to train with him for four weeks. Sponsors, food, and then he just came back talking sh*t about Woodley in a negative way. …If this guy’s going around talking about everybody like that, that’s just who he is, you know? There’s like nobody he respects, whatsoever.
“I was already like, let me start separating myself from this guy little by little, and then, ‘Bam!’ Before I could even like fully (separate), he betrayed my coach. Didn’t pay him the money that was agreed upon and I knew since then I’m gonna hurt this guy.”
Masvidal’s striking coach Paulino Hernandez was the party that was wronged, according to “Gamebred,” sparking the rivalry that has boiled over today. As a result, Masvidal vows to leave his opponent in “critical condition” when it’s all said and done at UFC 272.
“I’m hoping that the referee, on the way to pulling me off of him, slips on a banana peel and I get some extra shots in and really change his life and his face structure,” Masvidal said.
A win in the main event over Covington would provide some closure on their rivalry, but there is a business interest at play as well, since Masvidal still has his sights set on claiming UFC gold. Although he enters the fight against his rival with back-to-back losses to the current champion Kamaru Usman, he hopes a third chance would be on the horizon, should he emerge victorious against Covington.
“It’s gotta do something, right?” Masvidal said. “Because those rankings, as much bullsh*t as I think they are, he does have the No. 1, so there’s no denying me.”
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