One of Leon Edwards welterweight rivals Colby Covington has claimed that he should have been disqualified after his illegal eye poke led to Belal Muhammad being deemed unfit to continue in the main event of UFC Fight Night 187 on Saturday night, resulting in a no-contest ruling.
“He still hasn’t fought in two years,” Covington said of Edwards during an interview on Submission Radio. “He has a no-contest which, by the way, that should have been a disqualification. He did poke the guy in the face in the first round and backstage I know that Herb Dean gave him the warning, ‘Hey, don’t poke anyone in the eyes,’ because that’s the instruction they give every time before you go out there and fight. He should have been disqualified. I don’t know how that was a no-contest. That being said, he still hasn’t fought in two years. How is he still in the rankings?”
Backstage following the fight, Edwards apologized, but claimed he was winning the fight anyway and is now looking for a title shot, – a notion that Covington finds comical.
“It’s hilarious,” Covington said. “I had some people say, ‘Oh, it’s an accident!’ An accident is if one of the lights above the octagon falls in the octagon and hits one of the fighters in the head. An accident is if Herb Dean has a heart attack in the octagon and he’s not able to ref so they call the fight. That’s an accident. A second eye poke, a third eye poke, those aren’t accidents. That should have been a disqualification. The guy hasn’t won a fight in two years. He’s been turning down fights left and right with multiple people behind me that are nobodies. I’m the number one guy in the world, me and Marty Fakenewsman have unfinished business.”
That being said, Covington would be willing to fight Edwards if the price was right, but otherwise he feels there’s other bigger fights awaiting him next.
“They know what they can do to get me to show up for that fight but I’m not showing up for charity. The guy still hasn’t won in two years. A no-contest, that’s not a win, that’s not a fight. He needs to rematch that ‘Bailey’ guy. They need to fight again… Rerun that Leon fight vs. ‘Bailey’ because nobody gives a s*** about it. Nobody wants to watch that hot garbage. The only fight to make is me versus Marty Newsman or me versus Street Judas Masvidal.”
