Colby Covington Reveals Why Nick Diaz Turned Him Down For UFC 230
Colby Covington is expected to be the next UFC welterweight title challenger, but he almost had another huge fight in the bag. In fact, Covington claims he almost had a fight with the elusive Nick Diaz.
‘Chaos’ recently told BJPenn Radio that Diaz turned him down for the main event of November’s UFC 230. The card saw a ton of rearrangings due to injuries and other scheduling changes. It was headlined by a short-notice heavyweight title fight between Daniel Cormier and Derrick Lewis.
Diaz will reportedly return against Jorge Masvidal at next March’s UFC 235. Covington will most likely meet Tyron Woodley close to that date. He wants to defend his title next following that, and Diaz won’t be one of the contenders for it because of his refusal:
“No chance [I fight him]. I wanna defend my belt, you know. The Nick Diaz fight, it was cool, I would’ve been willing to save The Garden and make The Garden great again. You know the Trump family would’ve came out to support, it would’ve been a spectacle.
“I would’ve made history there. But now, he’s been passed up. I’m not wasting my time on him, he’s irrelevant.”
Covington’s Latest Target
The interim welterweight champion continued to blast Diaz by making light of his highly-publicized use of marijuana. He called Diaz a “joke” and said he wouldn’t waste his time:
“He’s a jobber, he hasn’t won a fight in years,” Covington continued. “He’s definitely 209’s weakest… a bunch of those soy-boys over there in California, smoking that marijuana. So you know, he’s a joke. I don’t wanna waste my time anymore with guys like him, you know. Chumps.”
According to ‘Chaos,’ he has bigger fish to fry in terms of the title picture:
“I got bigger and better things to do, you know? I gotta unify this title with Woodley and then after that, then we’ll start talkin’ big fights.”
There’s no doubt one of the biggest fights he could get if he did become champion would be against Diaz, however. That would be a true ‘money’ fight for him. It’s also one Woodley has discussed getting ever since the night he won the title almost two-and-a-half years ago.
