One of UFC's most-hated fighters, Colby Covington, will have an opportunity to be crowned the undisputed Welterweight champion the next time he steps foot in the octagon.
UFC President Dana White recently confirmed that Covington will challenge Welterweight champ Kamaru Usman, following Covington's dominant, unanimous decision victory against Robbie Lawler this past weekend in Newark. Covington and Usman got into a heated exchange following Saturday's event, so it's only right that the two get to duke it out for all the bragging rights.
In fact, Usman says fans are calling for him to "kill" Covington.
“I’ve been deleting messages for the past two days from Instagram,” Usman told TMZ (h/t MMAJunkie). “I’ve just deleted, deleted, deleted messages – thousands of messages on Instagram – of people saying: ‘Bro, you’ve gotta kill this dude.’ It’s not ‘beat him,’ it’s ‘kill this guy,’ ‘kill him for us,’ ‘I want him done worse than Askren was.’ People have malicious intent for this guy, myself included."
Speaking to reporters after the Contender Series earlier this week, White praised Covington's performance against Lawler.
Per Bloody Elbow:
“Yeah. That’s why I put Covington on ESPN against a guy like Lawler. You can say whatever you want about Covington, you don’t like him or whatever, but he put on a clinic against Lawler, who is a beast. Lawler’s been (in) all the big fights, former world champion, hits like a truck, and Colby completely shut him down. His cardio was impressive, and the way he beat Lawler was even more impressive.”
“I thought Colby did a really good job of shutting Robbie down. Kicks, punches, takedowns, he mixed it up. And his cardio was unbelievable. Unbelievable.”
UFC has not yet announced a date or venue for Covington vs Usman. When asked about the possibility of that fight being featured on the anticipated UFC 244 card at MSG in November, White only said, "We'll see."
As of now, Usman (10-0 in UFC) is listed as a -300 favorite, with Covington (10-1 in UFC) positioned as a +230 underdog.
As for Jorge Masvidal, who recently disposed of the previously undefeated Ben Asrken in less than five seconds, he'll have to win at least one more fight before he gets a shot at the Welterweight belt.
Per MMA Fighting: “You can’t make ultimatums,” White said about Masvidal. “Listen, we’re going to offer him a fight, and if he accepts the fight, he does and if he doesn’t, he doesn’t.”