Colby Covington Will Only Fight For ‘Undisputed Championship Pay’

It’s easy to see Colby Covington is not happy with his bosses at the UFC.

Earlier this week, the former interim welterweight champion even hinted at leaving the UFC when he was passed over for a title shot against Tyron Woodley. ‘The Chosen One’ will face Kamaru Usman at UFC 235 instead, and Covington insisted Usman’s manager Ali Abdelaziz was cooking up some “shady s**t” with the UFC.

Finally, Covington outright challenged UFC President Dana White to see “how big his balls” and release him. That hasn’t come close to transpiring, but there has been talk of Covington fighting Darren Till. In one of his many media stops this week, Covington told MMA Weekly he’s willing to fight Till. But if he does, it has to be for undisputed championship pay:

“They can get me to fight whoever but they’re going to have to give me undisputed championship pay. I’m not going to go backwards. I was promised an undisputed title shot and undisputed pay, I’m not fighting for anything less than undisputed pay. I’m not going to fight for less money.”

“They want me to fight Darren Till? Fine, no big deal. I’ll fight him, but I’m getting my undisputed championship title fight pay to fight him.”

Not At Full Potential?

Much of the discord between the ‘Chaos’ and the UFC stems from him not accepting a somewhat short-notice title bout with Woodley at September’s UFC 228. Covington says he wasn’t cleared to fight at the time. He needed surgery for sinusitis, and thinks we haven’t even seen him at his full potential as a result of the ailment:

”You haven’t even seen me at my best. You’ve seen me fighting for an interim title and winning a title at 50-percent when I couldn’t even breathe. Swallowing mucus, swallowing blood, all in my lungs, all in my sinuses and I had to get that surgery to clear it out. So you haven’t even seen my potential.”

Covington quickly became one of the most outspoken personalities in the UFC in late 2017 and early 2018. Yet it appears he’s fallen out of favor with his employers. That happens when you turn down multiple big fights as he supposedly did. It could still be stated that the UFC threw him under the bus, however, and it ultimately devalued the point of interim titles to next to nothing.

‘Chaos’ may be forced to rebound in a dangerous fight with Till. Even then he won’t be guaranteed a title shot. Welcome to 2019, fight fans, where the UFC seems to be making up the rules as they go. Because of that unsavory dynamic, Covington probably won’t be making that undisputed championship pay he claims he requires.