Colby Covington Says UFC & Abdelaziz Are Doing Some ‘Shady S**t’ To Him

Colby Covington is none too happy about being past over for a welterweight title shot, and he’s now daring UFC President Dana White to release him.

Covington made his point very clear today when making a full slate of media rounds.

“Until they give me what they promised and hold up their word, I’m not doing anything for them,” “Chaos” told MMAjunkie. “They’re going to have to give me a title shot or release me.”

Although he can be over-the-top at times, Covington seems to have a legit beef here. He was supposedly promised a shot at the title this past November and then again at this month’s now-canceled UFC 233. 

Covington’s Take On The UFC

According to Covington, he and his manager Dan Lambert requested multiple meeting with White to no avail. They were rebuffed, however. He claims the UFC is once again going back on what they promised him.

“This is what the UFC does,” he said. “You win something, you do whatever, they promise you you’re going to get this. They don’t put it in writing. They promise you, because it helps them do stuff like this, so they can do shady deals., they just rip everything up. They’re just lying to me. They try to push their own narratives, and it’s not fair. The narratives are a bunch of lies and a bunch of (expletive).”

Covington pointed to the fact that White once called Kamaru Usman a boring fighter until that beef was somehow fixed. He can’t get a similar meeting, so he’s going to find White himself.

“Dana White, he meets with everyone else,” he said. “He met with Usman when Usman’s boring, and that fixed their relationship. I asked for a meeting with him, and he won’t even talk to me. So you know what? I’m going to find Dana White, because he’s not a hard guy to find, I’m going to find Dana White, get in his face, and we’re going to see what he has to say on why this is happening. I’m going to get an answer out of him.”

While no one is sure where Covington and White’s relationship splintered, many people in the know have suggested that it comes down to Covington not being able to go in September.

Colby’s Injury

Covington described why he didn’t fight Woodley at UFC 228 in September on today’s The MMA Hour, which is causing some of the discord between he and the UFC:

“So all I did was ask for an extra two months instead of six weeks because they backed themselves into a corner in a matchmaking hole, and now they’re trying to hold this against me. But I find it funny because Dana White’s tone, he changes tone real quick. He heard from the UFC doctors, ‘Colby’s not cleared, he can’t fight in September in Dallas,’ and then he changed his tone. After the Woodley-Till fight, he was like, ‘Okay, Colby’s 100 percent fighting Woodley next, that’s the next fight to make,’ then all of a sudden everything’s changed — now they’re trying to hold it against me, ‘Oh, Colby’s not taking fights. That doesn’t fly in the UFC. Blah, blah, blah.’”

But now Usman has the title shot against Woodley at March’s UFC 235. Covington claimed the UFC and Usman’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, were making “a power play” against him and “working behind the scenes and doing some shady, corrupt (expletive).”

Historically, going head-to-head with Dana White and the UFC doesn’t typically end well for fighters For that, Covington has thrown caution into the wind and dared the UFC President to cut him.

“But let’s be honest: Dana, you don’t got the balls to release me. If you’re saying all of this stuff to the media, then release me. But you ain’t got the balls. You know I’m too valuable.”