Rising Welterweight Contender Rips Colby Covington
The welterweight division is currently at a high point, as a plethora of young and hungry contenders have emerged.
One of those contenders is Kamaru Usman, who has somewhat quietly put together a six-fight winning streak in the UFC. He’ll look to continue that winning streak on the main card of this weekend’s (Jan. 14, 2018) UFC Fight Night 124 against Emil Meek, but that wasn’t supposed to be his original matchup.
In fact, according to Usman, the UFC was first interested in booking him in a main event bout against outspoken red-hot contender Colby Covington:
“A lot of people don’t know, but (Covington and I) were supposed to be the main event for this card, which is why it took so long for (the UFC) to get a main event scheduled,” Usman told MMAjunkie. “But, once again, he declined the fight, so here we are. You can run, but you can’t hide forever.”
Due to his brash personality, many fighters have begun to take shots aimed at Covington, but Usman said that the two have a history and that a fight between them is ‘fate’:
“I believe this fight is fate. It has been written,” Usman said. “How much of a small world do we live in, where I’m a little boy born in Nigeria, a country of over 200 million people, in this small farm town, to get to the point where I immigrate here to America, to where I get to college and I cross paths with (Covington)?
“Me and Jon Jones crossed paths our senior year in high school. We met at senior nationals in a big wrestling tournament. After that, we became friends. He said he was going to go to school in Iowa – that’s great. We stayed in touch. In fall break, I went up to his school and spent time with him all fall break. We hung out all week. I stayed in his dorm, which happened to be the room that Colby Covington stayed in the following year when he moved there. How small of a world is that?
“To take things further, we both live in South Florida, probably 20 or 30 miles away from each other. We train at rival gyms. We have mutual friends, and I mean mutual friends that we talk to daily. So this is something that’s been set in stone. It’s been written.”
If Usman picks up another victory this weekend, he’ll certainly be in line for a big fight, and Covington could fit that bill with his high ranking added to their lengthy backstory listed above.
Would you like to see him and Covington mix it up?
