Colby Covington says there’s no chance of fighting Ian Garry at UFC 303, instead ‘Chaos’ eyes a legacy fight against former lightweight king Charles Oliveira.
‘Chaos’ by name, ‘Chaos’ by nature: Former UFC interim welterweight champion Colby Covington has made a surprise callout of lightweight superstar Charles Oliveira in another expletive-laced interview.
Colby Covington says the ‘ship sailed’ on Ian Machado Garry fight
Speaking to Kacper Rosolowski and Denis Shkuratov via Submission Radio, Colby Covington shared that despite several months of divisive back-and-forth posts on social media, the ship has now sailed on a potential fight with Ian Machado Garry.
“I don’t know if that ship will come back around… No one cares about the kid, he’s irrelevant, he doesn’t have any high-profile wins and he does nothing for my career… He’s not serious about business, so the ship’s sailed and I’ll fight whoever I want to fight when I want to fight.”
Garry had been calling for the fight to be the co-main event of UFC 303 in June, headlined by his countryman Conor McGregor returning to the octagon to face Michael Chandler – but if Garry is a no-go, who does Covington want instead?
Colby Covington calls out former LW champion Charles Oliveira
Covington then took the opportunity to call out former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira, who himself recently teased a move up to welterweight following his decision loss to Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300.
“I want legacy fights; I think a guy like Charles Oliveira makes sense,” shared the brash American, before returning to his infamous Brazil-bashing persona:
“I’m the king of f****** Brazil, everybody knows I run that f****** country; all the women love me, all the men in Brazil want to be like me so Charles Oliveira, if you really want to come up to welterweight, and you want big fights, let’s see if you are about it or if you’re just talk.”
“If you want to come up here and walk the walk, let’s see.”
With the utmost respect to ‘The Future’, a fight between Covington and Oliveira would be a much more popular option for the UFC to go with given that ‘Do Bronx’ is one of the biggest stars in the sport.
“He’s a bigger name [than Garry] that’s a former champion, someone who’s actually done something in this business, someone that’s actually relevant… Is he [Oliveira] going to defend his country or is going to go into retirement knowing that Colby Covington is the owner of Brazil.”
Whilst a potential matchup between Oliveira and Covington might raise a few eyebrows, ‘Chaos’ believes that it’s only a matter of time before the Brazilian superstar makes his way to 170lbs, where he will be waiting.
“He’s a huge lightweight, it’s not healthy and it’s not sustainable [to cut to 155]; we’re probably exactly the same weight, so we’re very comparable in size but skill? No, that’s where we’re not comparable.”
“I beat him everywhere – I’m a better jiu-jitsu artist than him, I’m a better striker, I’m just a better all-around Mixed Martial Artist.”
‘Chaos’ also sees a potential matchup with Belal Muhammad
Yet Oliveira wasn’t the only name in mind for who Covington wanted to face next as he also called out top contender Belal Muhammad, who is himself waiting for an anticipated title fight against current king Leon Edwards.
“I would like Belal; he’s talked a lot of smack [and] I want that racist to catch a fade – he’s out there saying I only got my title shot because of white privilege [but] now he’s squatting on his ranking.”
“He should have to come out and fight, and I think we should fight – that’s the fight that should be next, he doesn’t deserve to fight for the title,” said Covington, before adding that he believes a matchup with ‘Remember the Name’ would be an easy night at the office:
“It’s just an easy fight, he can’t strike with me, and I’ll show the world that he’s just one dimensional, he’s not going to out wrestle me, he won’t take me down one time; his takedowns are average at best and his striking is so bad.”
“I think I KO the guy and I think it’s a pretty easy fight.”