As one of the biggest stars in the UFC at the moment, Jorge Masvidal is likely to be locking horns with another big-name star next, but he’s not overly impressed with the two fighters currently making their mark at the top of the welterweight division.
Of course the current No.1 contender Covington is well known to Masvidal as they were long-time training partners and had at one stage been close friends, though that relationship has soured in recent times.
Most people came away marvelling at Covington’s last performance against Robbie Lawler, but ‘Gambred’ wasn’t one of them.
“In some aspects, yeah, he threw 500 punches but he never hurt Robbie once,” Masvidal told Yahoo! Sports Kevin Iole. “If you’re just doing this cause you got the guy tired from wrestling, I don’t give it credit,” Masvidal said. “Like they always say, it’s so cliché but there’s levels to this. There’s a reason why Colby wouldn’t want the fight. If he could pick guys, he wouldn’t want the fight. There’s a reason why he’s saying we weren’t talking for a year and a half ‘he’s my best friend,’ he was just saying that four weeks ago, five weeks ago that I was his best friend and now all of a sudden I’m his mortal enemy?
“The guy has his wires crossed, especially when it comes to me. He got to train with me a little bit so you can imagine the trauma I put him through.”
Current champion Usman also offered up a stand-out performance in his title-winning fight against Tyron Woodley last time out, but again Masvidal feels that his all-round game is overrated.
“Not at all,” Masvidal said when asked by Iole if he was impressed by Usman. “I think there’s some things he does well, which is kind of stall. He just gets to a leg and takes guys down. I’m a fan of grappling but I like to see grappling offensively.”
As such, Masvidal isn’t exactly in a hurry to fight either man, stating that he’s happy to let them fight each other for the “hugging championship” while he takes a bigger money fight with the likes of Nick Diaz or Conor McGregor.
However he does expect that he will cross paths with the winner at some stage.
“They are fighting for the spot to fight me, you know? I’m the ticket at 170lbs.”
