Colby Covington Claims ‘Luster is Gone’ From Rivalry Due to Tyron Woodley’s Title Loss

Colby Covington wanted the chance to fight Tyron Woodley when the champion was on top of the world but that dream is over after Woodley was decimated in his title fight against Kamaru Usman earlier this month at UFC 235.

Onetime training partners Covington and Woodley have been engaging in a war of words for some time now and the pair were meant to meet for the 170-pound title last September, unifying Covington’s interim title with the undisputed strap held by Woodley. However, “Chaos” decided to undergo nasal surgery and the UFC awarded the shot to Darren Till.

Covington was again set to face Woodley at UFC 235, but the UFC decided against the fight and awarded the shot to Usman who had assisted the UFC previously by making himself available as a back-up fighter for Woodley’s defense against Till at UFC 228 last year.

Now that Woodley has been dethroned, the outspoken Covington told MMA News that the fight just won’t be the same anymore.

“The luster is taken off of it,” Covington said. “He was this invincible guy who was claiming to be the best welterweight of all time, which we all know was complete lies cause he’s a fake f—ker. It just had so many different angles in it. The red versus blue. He’s a liberal, I’m a Republican. There’s so many different ways the fight could go. Ex-teammates, we literally hate each other, that wasn’t a fake beef. ‘Marty Snoozeman’ tried to manufacture a beef with Woodley but there was no beef there. They were actually friends, they were cool and they actually liked each other.

“There was real beef with me and Woodley and we wanted to settle our differences. I beat his ass every day at American Top Team for three or four years and this was his chance in front of the whole world to try and get me back but it wasn’t going to happen. I was going to do what ‘Marty Snoozeman’ did but I was going to do worse. I was going to take him to deep waters, get him all tired and finish him.”

Covington, who was in the crowd when Woodley was defeated by Usman, said the beef between the pair is real. The 31-year-old even said he got into a verbal altercation with Woodley’s mother during the night when the fans were starting to chant his name.

“Even me and ‘Mama’ Woodley had a fight in the crowd cause all the fans were cheering ‘Colby you’re the real champ’ and I said that’s right and Mama Woodley stands up ‘oh hell no, f—k you Colby, my son’s going to knock you the f—k out’ and then Dana [White] had to come separate us and keep security by us. It was crazy,” Covington revealed.

“There were so many different angles and so much real beef that me and Tyron Woodley brought to the table. It sucks that it lost all the hype and even if wins a couple fights, I’ll give him a shot at my title after I destroy Usman but it’s not going to have the same effect as it had before when he was on a long winning streak.”

While Covington claims that the luster for the fight has gone away, he said he did warn Woodley about taking these unnecessary fights against Till and Usman instead of waiting for him.

“He had his shot. I told him don’t f—k this up ‘Tyquil’, don’t f—k this up,” Covington stated. “You don’t need to take this fight. You didn’t need to take the Darren Till fight. All you had to do was wait one month for me. This is all his doing.”