How Colby Covington Betrayed His Former Friend Jorge Masvidal
Colby Covington is one of the most hated fighters in the UFC. Now even his friends hate him. Jorge Masvidal had been friends with him for years, but now their bond is broken. Here’s how Covington betrayed Masvidal.
The best of times for Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal
As the South China Morning Post reports, Masvidal was friends with Covington back when he was just starting out in MMA. Covington would sleep on Masvidal’s couch. Not only did they live together for some time, but they also trained together. In fact, when both men were relatively new to the UFC, they’d even wrestle with each other in their small apartment.
In fact, not that long ago, Covington talked about their close friendship. In his interview with the South Florida Insider, Covington said his friendship with Masvidal is similar to Batman and Robin’s bond, with Covington as Batman and Masvidal as Robin.
Then, Covington went on to say they would only fight each other if it was for the belt. He also said he couldn’t think of a better story than having two best friends fight for the title. However, things came to a head recently as their friendship fractured.
Screwing his team
Because of their close friendship, Covington and Masvidal trained at the same gym, American Top Team, or ATT, as well as under the same coach. However, after Covington won the interim welterweight title, he neglected to pay his coach, according to the South China Morning Post.
This angered Masvidal, as he thought Covington had ripped off their coach. Masvidal confronted him about it. Before it got too heated, their coach stepped in and cooled things off. Since then, Masvidal claims he stopped speaking to Covington.
Not only that but for some reason, Covington trash-talked his teammate, Dustin Poirier. This made no sense as the two men fought in different weight classes. So it just seemed like Covington was trash-talking for no good reason. Poirier responded by sending Covington the time and place where the two men could settle their differences.
Other fighters and ATT teammates called out Covington’s antics and even making fun of him. For instance, after Masvidal signed a contract to fight Nate Diaz, he mocked Covington by bragging about joining the multi-millionaire club before Covington did. Masvidal also shared that he’s saddened that Covington would do things just for likes on social media. As a result of the drama, Covington said he may leave ATT in the near future.
A real feud between Covington and Masvidal
Some fans speculate that Covington and Masvidal’s feud isn’t real, and they’re just pretending to feud with one another for attention. However, there’s evidence to the contrary. Before the feud took off, the two men had been taking potshots at one another. For example, in response to Covington calling Masvidal his Robin, Masvidal said he knows Covington didn’t write that line, in reference to his inability to be genuine at trash-talking.
When fans speculated about a fight between Diaz and Masvidal, Covington called that fight a fight between journeymen. A journeyman is a fighter who will never win a title, so Covington was insulting both Diaz and Masvidal. Furthermore, Masvidal had criticized UFC’s trash-talking culture. It’s something Covington does a lot of, so Masvidal was in a way criticizing Covington long before their feud.
