Colby Covington could become a welterweight champion later this year — and he is eyeing some big matchups after that.
Covington is the No. 1 contender and expects to face current champion Leon Edwards in August. Should he come out of that fight victorious as he expects to, “Chaos” has aspirations to fight foes outside the welterweight division.
It's not Dustin Poirier either — one of them happens to be UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
“Absolutely [I’d still love that matchup], I think that’s a huge fight and it’s a fight of high magnitude,” Covington told MMA Fighting. “I like the matchup, to be honest. I don’t think he can hang with me. I think I take him down, I beat him from pillar to post and I just break him inside that octagon. He can’t hang with the cardio king. He’s not ready for all-American steel and twisted sex appeal.”
“I would love that fight, champion vs. champion, USA vs. wherever he’s from New Zealand or whatever, let’s get this going.”
That said, Covington doesn't expect Adesanya to sign off on that fight given the stylistic matchup.
“I don’t think he wants to fight a high-level wrestler like me, someone that can just keep up and be in his face the whole entire time, pressuring him,” Covington explained. “I’m not just going to shoot one takedown, I’m going to shoot 5,000 takedowns and be in your face and break you.”
While Adesanya would be a move up, Covington is also looking down at the lightweight division and current champion Islam Makhachev.
“I think it’s a very realistic possibility,” Covington explained. “There were conversations backstage in the past that we had about [a fight with Makhachev], and if I could make 155 because I’m not a big 170 [pounder]. I don’t cut much weight – 15-20 pounds max if I’m just completely eating as much as I can stuff in my face.
“So I know we probably walk around at the same weight, he’s just a weight bully. He’s cutting all that weight to get the advantage at lightweight because there’s no wrestlers, there’s no guys that can give him any trouble. So of course, he wants to be in that division, the same division his daddy Khabib [Nurmagomedov] used to own.
“There’s a reason Khabib never came to 170, fought at welterweight because King Colby’s here and he knows I’ll stop his wrestling and punch him in the face until he quits.”
Whether those fights happen remain to be seen, but it's clear that Covington has aspirations to not only become welterweight king, but a two-division champion as well.
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