Covington and Woodley trained together several years ago and according to Covington, he dominated the champion in their exchanges. Covington was a recent guest on BJ Penn radio and said he’ll be cheering for Woodley in the title fight next month before taking some personal jabs at him in true “Chaos” style.
“It’s gonna be the doughboy [Till] versus the soy boy [Woodley] at UFC 228,” Covington said. “I mean I never thought I would say this, but I’m actually rooting for Woodley. I want him to win, because I don’t want him to f*ck up everything I built. I built this fight with him for over a year and a half. I’ve been begging to fight him, dude, he’s ducking me every shot he can. So I’m begging for Woodley not to f*ck this up, but I just don’t know. I don’t know what’s left in the tank. Man, he’s older… man, he’s 36. He’s been in Hollywood. He’s on his little soy boy diet. He’s doing his little B-list movies that are going straight to DVD that no one cares about.”
Once the fight next month starts, Covington will be officially stripped of his interim title, though he is a likely first choice to face the winner. Covington was unable to take the fight against Woodley in September due to nasal surgery and rather than have the champ wait, the UFC decided to move forward with the Woodley-Till fight.