Ben Askren Trolls Colby Covington, Covington Responds
In a huge shock announcement yesterday, Dana White and the UFC announced that Colby Covington will face Robbie Lawler in the main event at UFC Newark.
This came as a big surprise, as Covington had previously refused to take any fight other than a title shot. Even after losing his original title shot against Tyron Woodley to Kamaru Usman at UFC 235, ‘Chaos’ refused to even entertain anything but a title shot.
But while Covington insisted that the UFC would give him the next shot at the title, his fellow UFC welterweight Ben Askren repeatedly warned him that if he’s going to insist on sitting around waiting for a title shot, the UFC is likely give the next title shot to someone else.
So as you can imagine, Askren was more than happy to troll Covington, after hearing the news.
And we didn’t have to wait long for Covington to respond to Askren. Speaking to MMA Junkie, Covington hit back at Askren by saying that he hadn’t event won a fight in the UFC yet.
“Ben Askren doesn’t even have a UFC win yet. He needs to get a UFC win before he starts talking. And even when he gets one UFC win, you’re going to need a couple to get a title shot. You don’t get gifted title shots because you talk a bunch of s*** on Twitter or on Instagram. Your resume speaks for itself. His resume is dog s***. He’s beat nobody. He’s got a bunch of nobodies on his list. He was beating a bunch of cans in Asian bingo halls. That’s all his resume consists of.”
Covington went on to criticise Askren for not being able to promote his own fight.
“It’s embarrassing. He needs to learn a thing or two on how to promote a fight. He’s not fighting me, he’s not fighting Marty (Usman), he’s fighting my best friend Jorge Masvidal. So if he knew how to promote a fight, he’d be promoting his fight with Jorge Masvidal, but he’s too busy sweating the top of the division. He’s in the middle of the pack right now.”
The former ONE Championship and Bellator welterweight champion does of course have a win in the UFC, having beaten Robbie Lawler at UFC 235. Albeit it in controversial circumstances. While many thought Herb Dean was right to stop the fight when he did, others thought that Lawler was still in the fight and the fight was stopped early.
As well as trolling Covington, ‘Funky’ also stated again this week, his desire to fight Georges St-Pierre. Speaking to the media ahead of his clash with Masvidal, he was asked who his next three ideal opponents would be. In which he replied, “Jorge Masvidal, Marty (Kamaru) Usman, and Georges St-Pierre”.
When also asked by the media who his fantasy match up would be against, his reply was “George St-Pierre”.
Askren faces Masvidal at UFC 239, which goes down at the T-Mobile Arena, in Las Vegas on July 6th. Covington’s main event against Lawler takes place at UFC Newark, on August 3rd.
Who do you think should get the next shot at Kamaru Usman?
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