Colby Covington Acknowledges That Feud With Poirier, Masvidal May Force Him Out of ATT

Former UFC interim welterweight champion Colby Covington acknowledges that his ongoing feud with American Top Team teammates Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier may force him out of his longtime gym.

Over the last week, issues between the ATT fighters has come to a head with Covington openly criticizing his teammates labelling Masvidal as someone who uses people while calling Poirier’s emotional showing after his loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov over the weekend as “Emmy Award-winning”. The comments from Covington infuriated Poirier who said if he sees Covington at the gym then a fight will ensue.

Covington spoke to BJPenn.com Radio and said while he is loyal to ATT and its owner Dan Lambert, the feud may force him to leave the gym.

“That’s a very real possibility,” Covington said of a potential departure. “It’s a very real possibility. I don’t know. I think Dan Lambert is a little bit nervous about it. We’ve been having talks the last couple of days and he’s very nervous about it. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Covington added. “I’m always there at the gym. They know where to find me if they want to cause a scene and make friction in the gym. I know Dan doesn’t like that. He doesn’t want that rap.

“That’s the worst part about this, is the rap our gym’s getting; that there’s so much friction in the gym. But everybody knows the results speak for themselves. American Top Team is the greatest gym in the world. We have the best fighters, we have the best coaches and we have the best facilities. So I just hope that Dan doesn’t let the opinion of outsiders influence what we’re really doing. And at the end of the day, people are going to love you and people are going to hate you, man. Just take it all. There’s no such thing as bad publicity. The only bad publicity is no publicity.”