Colby Covington is certain that he will emerge victorious anytime he competes against the reigning welterweight champion Leon Edwards and walk away from the octagon with the championship belt around his waist. “Chaos” will attempt to cause even more disruption at that time.
Covington, who has been designated as Edwards’ top opponent, has expressed interest in scheduling a fight with Edwards for the month of August in an interview with MMA Fighting. After defeating Jorge Masvidal at UFC 272 over a year ago, Covington has been interested in facing current middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
“Absolutely [I’d still love that matchup], I think that’s a huge fight and it’s a fight of high magnitude,” Covington told MMA Fighting. “I like the matchup, to be honest. I don’t think he can hang with me. I think I take him down, I beat him from pillar to post and I just break him inside that octagon. He can’t hang with the cardio king. He’s not ready for raw American steel and twisted sex appeal.”
“I would love that fight, champion vs. champion, USA vs. wherever he’s from New Zealand or whatever, let’s get this going.”
Adesanya successfully defended his middleweight title by knocking out Alex Pereira in the second round of their match at UFC 287 in April. Former champion Robert Whittaker will battle Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 290, and White says the winner will likely face Adesanya for the title later this year.
Covington believes that he will be able to defeat Adesanya in the future if the timeframes align, but that Adesanya, the current holder of the middleweight belt, will not want to fight Covington because of his speed and aggressive fighting style.
“I don’t think he wants to fight a high-level wrestler like me, someone that can just keep up and be in his face the whole entire time, pressuring him,” Covington said. “I’m not just going to shoot one takedown, I’m going to shoot 5,000 takedowns and be in your face and break you.
“If that’s what the UFC wants to do, I’m here. I’m a company man, I’m a businessman so I care about the company and whatever the company wants to do, I want to do the biggest and best business for the company, the UFC, the greatest organization in the world.”
If Covington were to win the undisputed welterweight title, another prospective meeting with a current champion that sparks his interest is Islam Makhachev, who has the lightweight title.