Dana White has recently stated that Colby Covington is no longer the interim world champion. For over a year, there has been talk about Woodley and Colby fighting each other to crown the undisputed welterweight champion. However, Colby was then passed over for Kamaru Usman, who will fight Woodley at UFC 235.

Colby Covington has since taken to social media, to trash talk Dana White. The American Top Team founder Dan Lambert recently spoke with BJPenn.com, to clarify the situation, and share his thoughts on what’s next for Colby.

“I think he didn’t get the shot because he was unwilling to take a different fight on short notice when he has been promised a fight against Woodley”, Lambert told BJPENN.com. “He had been offered that fight a few different times. He was offered it in November, January and not too long before the fight was supposed to happen Woodley couldn’t do it because of a finger injury.

“They then wanted Colby to fight Usman instead for the right to fight Woodley on March 2 which is six weeks later”, he continued. “That math just doesn’t work because how many things can go wrong in a fight. To then make a turnaround in six weeks against the champion is undoable. He was then like ‘no, I’ll wait for the champion.’ They said ‘no, if you don’t take the fight against Usman we are going to skip you over’ and that is what they did.”

“A million things could happen, it just is not practical from Colby’s standpoint”, Lambert explained. “He still has the interim belt, he technically has still never been stripped of his interim belt. To turn around to say you fight Usman for a number one contender fight just didn’t make sense.”

Covington has since maintained his stance that he would rather get his release from the UFC, than fight anybody else. Lambert said Colby stands by what he says.

“Colby has come out and said he is not fighting unless it is against the champion”, he said. “Whether you like or don’t like him, the guy is not full of shit. When he says that he means it.”

Transcript via BJPenn.com