Vicente Luque already has a fight booked with Belal Muhammad next at UFC On ESPN 34 on April 16th, but the current No.4 ranked welterweight contender is already eyeing who his next opponent could be as he looks to make a strong push towards a title shot.
With that in mind, Luque has suggested that he’d be eager to square up with recent title challenger Colby Covington next if he firstly gets past the No.5 ranked Muhammad.
“He’s the No. 1 contender. He’s coming off a win,” Luque said of Covington in an interview with ESPN. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen in the division until I fight and after I fight, so it might be a good fight for me to secure that No. 1 contender (spot) and get the next title shot, so we got to see what’s going to happen. When I see Colby, I don’t like his personality, I don’t like who he is as a person outside of the octagon, but I respect him as a fighter. He’s a tough guy. He goes in there and really puts his heart in the fight. So I think it would be an awesome fight. He would go in there and try to beat me; I’m going to go in there and try to finish him.”
Despite primarily being a deadly striker with four wins in a row under his belt in the past couple of years, Luque doesn’t fear Covington’s wrestling prowess, but rather sees it as an essential learning experience on the path to fighting current champion Kamaru Usman.
“He’s a wrestler. He’s a guy that’s gonna try to control me, very (much) like Kamaru would try and do against me, so I think it would be a good training. Go in there, five rounds against a guy like Colby and go out there and try and beat him, secure my No. 1 spot, and that might be an option for sure.”
