Colby Covington finally returns to action later this month to take on Joaquin Buckley in the UFC Tampa main event and he has been bizarrely targeted by lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev.
After losing in extremely disappointing fashion to Leon Edwards last December, Colby Covington has not fought for the entirety of 2024 as he has been nursing a foot injury and waiting for the perfect time to return.
Fittingly, ‘Caos’ return comes just a week after current welterweight champion Belal Muhammad was scheduled to make the first defense of his title at UFC 310, but he withdrew because of an injury.
Shavkat Rakhmonov went on to claim that despite Covington claiming that he would step in to fight him, he rejected the fight offer along with several other 170lbers.
Colby Covington slams Islam Makhachev for being a ‘weight bully’
Of course, the former interim welterweight champion has been extremely outspoken throughout his UFC career and has targeted several fighters both above him and below him in weight.
In the lead-up to his fight against Edwards, Covington claimed that he fights at his natural weight because he knows he’s ‘the best fighter in the world’, taking aim at Islam Makhachev for being a ‘weight bully’.
“Let me know who’s gonna be eating like this seven days out from a fight, no one. I don’t cut weight though, I’m a real fighter… I’m not a weight bully like Islam Makhachev who has to cut all that weight to have an advantage over midgets and beat those guys up so that’s why I’m number one pound-for-pound fighter on earth,” Covington said in an episode of UFC 296 embedded.
This isn’t the first time Covington has gone in on the team from Dagestan, as he has previously said the same thing about Khabib Nurmagomedov, claiming that he and Makhachev were ‘squeezing chromosomes out of their body during their weight cut’.
Islam Makhachev goes off on Colby Covington for his ‘weight bully’ claims
However, just a few weeks out from his long-awaited return to action, the lightweight champion has clapped back at Covington, slamming him for his comments.
“First, let’s describe who Colby is. A man who can’t prove anything with his fights, but tries to be well known with his mouth. This is what he does. He doesn’t talk about fighters who are not in the top 15,” Makhachev told Match TV.
“He talks about fighters who have already achieved a lot to be well-known. I think he’s one of the masters of trash talk, but it’s not true that he doesn’t cut weight. Everyone cuts weight.
“For example, Kamaru Usman weighs more than 90kg, he is huge. I do not weigh 86kg. My maximum weight when I train is 82-83kg. (His comments don’t bother me), why should it bother me? It would be understandable if it was someone (who is a good fighter) but when a person can’t fight normally, but still talks about me, it doesn’t bother me,” Makhachev added.
Islam Makhachev goes OFF on Colby Covington 😳
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) December 4, 2024
“[Colby is] a man who can’t prove anything with his fights, but tries to be well known with his mouth.”
🎥 MatchTV #UFC #MMApic.twitter.com/sjfCYoKwXm
The lightweight champion has continuously stated his desire to eventually move up to welterweight to challenge for another belt and he is probably hoping that Covington hits a career resurgence so they can potentially fight each other in the future.