Jorge Masvidal won’t let his emotions take over ahead of UFC 272.
Colby Covington, Masvidal’s former roommate and co-worker will be taking on Masvidal in a non-title five-round main event in Las Vegas. The discourse between the two welterweights has grown ugly in recent years since their friendship deteriorated, with Covington lobbing personal shots at Masvidal’s character, family, relationships, and everything in between. But as fight night approaches, Masvidal is keeping a clear eye on what his grudge match against MMA Fighting’s No. 2 ranked Welterweight is what it really means.
“It’ll put me as the No. 1 contender,” Masvidal said Wednesday at UFC 272 media day. Masvidal said Wednesday at UFC 272 media day that he will be fighting for the title soon. However, I will not talk about my great fights with this man to my grandkids. This will be a personal matter, “Yeah I beat that guy up”, and some other dude I didn’t like. That’s all.
“He will not rank high in terms of accomplishments. I don’t like his style, how he fights. It’s going to look easy Saturday night, and I don’t think people will give me credit. They’re going to be like, ‘Yeah, I guess Masvidal was right. Colby’s overrated, over-ranked, and f*cking a piece of sh*t individual.'”
Masvidal tried to minimize the impact his competition with Covington on his performance, but that does not mean “Gamebred”, is ready to forget. Covington has crossed boundaries that are rare in fight promotion. This was both prior to the UFC 272 booking and during the bout’s build-up. Covington has used his family knowledge to smear his American Top Team former teammate. Masvidal sees this as unforgivable.
“My kids mean a lot to me,” Masvidal said. My daughter is 13 old and she’s always online. She is online 24/7. I don’t have the control to stop her. So she logs onto her smartphone and sees what she’s seeing. We are being brought up ?’
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” These are the types of things that I will never allow to slip in my life. We could be, both of us, in a very bad situation where we could maybe help each other to get out of that situation, and I would say, ‘Nah, we’re both dying here.’ Like in a sinking ship, I’m causing a fist-fight right there with him and we’re both dying.”
Covington is currently more than a 3-to-1 betting favorite to defeat Masvidal, however the dynamic in the matchup is unique considering how long the two trained together at ATT.
Both men are intimately familiar with each other’s styles and how they perform when the going gets tough — and Masvidal sees that knowledge as an advantage for himself.
“I’ve never quit on a session, right?” Masvidal said. Masvidal said, “Like when I and him go… I have never quit no matter what — even if it was just a wrestling session with no punches, and he just beats me up wrestling, I didn’t quit.” He’s quit when we’re going strikes, and from body blows and stuff like that. He’s gotten upset, taken his gloves off, walked out of the cage. He’s had to have the coaches talk to him and say, ‘Hey man, it’s just training. Relax. You’re getting a little bit too heated. Get back into it. It’s all good.’ I’ve never done that. My ass will whoop like a woman and my ass will whoop like a male.
“He can be an alright hammer. He could. He cannot play the role of the nail. He quickly unravels when things aren’t going his way. It’s a snowball effect. We’ve seen him. You’ll the see facial expressions he makes when things ain’t going his way. When Warlley Alves wasn’t giving into him and put him in a little guillotine, before he could even sink it in — tapped. This is just how the beast works. He’s a good hammer, but never a nail.”
Masvidal has a history of winning big as a bet underdog. Although he was the underdog in 2019, against Darren Till, and Ben Askren respectively, Masvidal knocked them out in remarkable fashion. This helped propel him to UFC superstardom. Masvidal’s Askren victory was a memorable one. His 5-second flying leg knockout became one of UFC’s most memorable finishes.
Masvidal believes that Covington will experience the same fate.
“I have a similar plan for Colby,” Masvidal stated. “It starts violent and it ends even more violent.”
