Rumors of a potential bout between Khamzat Chimaev and Colby Covington have been circulating for quite some time, but it appears that the matchup is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
While ‘Chaos’ recently made an appearance at UFC 286 and called out Leon Edwards, he also dismissed the idea of facing Chimaev.
Colby Covington claims that the event was never formally presented to him. While he was initially keen on derailing Chimaev’s hype train, he lost interest due to the Chechen’s unprofessional conduct. Covington cited Chimaev’s UFC 279 weight-miss fiasco as an example of his unprofessionalism, stating that he doesn’t want to hear the Chechen’s name in the division again.
Dana White had claimed Chimaev has since moved up to middleweight.
“He had the easiest fight in the division against Nate Diaz and he still missed weight. He missed weight by 9 pounds and he’s laughing it off like it’s a f*ing Joke”
The Chechen-born Swede has accused Covington of lying and turning down the matchup multiple times.
In response to Covington’s latest antics, Khamzat Chimaev swore by the Quran and accused ‘Chaos’ of lying. According to Chimaev, he has accepted the matchup with Covington four times, but it fell through each time.
“IT was never formally presented to me. We talked about it, it was the fight that I wanted. I wanted to derail that hype train… I was begging to fight that, I was chomping at the bit, but we saw how unprofessional he was… The guy’s a clown, I don’t want to ever hear that guy’s name in this division again. Let that dog-faced motherf***er rot in 185.””
He claims to have had conversations with Sean Shelby that confirm that they were going to face each other, but it never happened. Chimaev also accused Covington of running away after seeing him at the UFC Performance Institute.
With both guys pointing fingers at each other and showing disinterest in the matchup, it seems unlikely that Khamzat Chimaev and Colby Covington will face each other in the near future.
Covington seems to be enjoying the Dana White privilege and will likely get a welterweight title shot next.