It’s an interesting time to be Colby Covington.
(Then again, if you follow his Instagram account, it could be reasoned it’s always an interesting time to be Colby Covington.)
Today, the former UFC interim welterweight champion had a proposition fired off to him by welterweight champ Tyron Woodley. The two have been dancing toward each other, but haven’t been able to make a fight booking happen yet.
Woodley went on his regular TMZ show, “Hollywood Beatdown,” and issued a challenge to Covington for if and when they fight for the title.
Believing Covington will try to take Woodley down at every turn, Woodley wants Covington to pay up for each takedown attempt he makes.
“I’ll bet you $10,000,” Woodley said. “Every single time you touch my leg for a (takedown) shot, you’ve got to pay me 10 grand. I want people to see it for what it is. You don’t want to see these hands. You don’t want to do nothing but try to out-wrestle me. And at the end of the day, he can’t even do that. So I’m challenging you: No wrestling. You touch my leg, it’s 10 bands. If I touch your leg I’ll give you 20 grand.”
A few hours after that bet went out to the public, though, Covington appeared on MMAjunkie Radio. And there, he offered a counter wager.
“What I make of it is, I’m going to counter him and I’m going to bet him on MMAjunkie Radio that I’m going to give him $10,000 for every punch he throws – all five of them,” he said.
In other words, not only does Covington think he won’t have to take Woodley down, but it either will be the opposite – or at the very least, Woodley won’t be around in the fight long enough to throw many punches.
Covington won the interim welterweight title against Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 225 in June, but had it stripped from him when he had to sideline himself with nasal surgery. That surgery kept him out of a title fight with Woodley, who instead beat Darren Till at UFC 228 in September.
But Covington says he’s been ready and that Woodley has been the one ducking him.
“We’re just waiting on Woodley,” he said. “That’s literally what we’ve been waiting on for the last year. He’s been faking injuries. He had his fake shoulder surgery – but he was good to fight Nate Diaz during that time. Now he says he was good to fight me at (Madison Square) Garden (at UFC 230 in November). By the way, I was ready to defend my belt three months (after UFC 225) in the Garden, but all of a sudden he couldn’t fight in the Garden a week after negotiations got going. He was out and said his thumb was hurting – that’s fake news, as well, and he’s faking injuries again.
“We’re just waiting on Woodley. Whenever he wants to go, whenever he wants to tell the people – he lies and says fake news to the media – I’m ready to go whenever Woodley wants to go, and this needs to happen. If it doesn’t happen, it’s Woodley’s fault.”
The latest wrinkle for Covington is Kamaru Usman’s win over dos Anjos this past Friday night at the TUF 28 Finale in Las Vegas. After that fight, UFC President Dana White said Usman very well may have jumped the line for a potential title shot with Woodley ahead of Covington.
Woodley estimates he’ll be fighting someone either in January or March 2019.
For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
