Colby Covington on Win in UFC 272 Headliner: ‘That’s the End of Street Judas’

Colby Covington settled the score with former American Top Team training partner Jorge Masvidal in the best way possible, winning a dominant unanimous decision in the UFC 272 headliner on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

After the victory, Covington reflected on the grudge match and what it was like to square off against someone he once considered a close friend.

“Just a lot of emotions going into it,” Covington said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “That was a real friend of mine at one point in my career, and he’s such a backstabbing thief, and he talks so reckless. He tried to make some false narratives to the media and lies like he does – he’s a liar. He’s a thief. So I let the emotions get the best of me, but it was still dominant.

“I just showed how good I was, that I am the No. 1 fighter in the world for a reason, and it wasn’t even competitive tonight.”

Covington is ready to close that book on the Masvidal rivalry following Saturday’s win, even though there still appeared to be bad blood between the two men at the final bell.

“He was still running his mouth,” Covington said. “It’s like, dude, you just got pounded out. You got dropped, wobbled. Just a complete domination from second one to minute 25. You could see in his body language, he literally didn’t have another one minute to go, so just imagine if there wasn’t a ref there tonight. His life would have been over.

“So, that’s the end of ‘Street Judas.’ I don’t want to hear any more talk of Street Judas, the hype machine that hit lightning in a bottle for a couple fights. He’s done. I don’t want to hear another word about it.”

With wins in nine of his last 11 appearances, Covington remains the clear No. 2 in the UFC’s welterweight division, but a title shot appears unlikely considering “Chaos” has two losses already to reigning champ Kamaru Usman. In his post-fight interview, Covington called out Dustin Poirier, another American Top Team standout.

“He said it’s on sight. Let’s do it,” Covington said of Poirier. “Stop talking reckless in the media. If I talk to the media and say things, I come out here and back it up. I’m a man of my word.

“So we can do it anywhere. We don’t have to do it in the UFC Octagon. If he wants to do it in a park, or in a street, my one stipulation is that you let the world watch it and enjoy themselves.”

Meanwhile, UFC president Dana White was unsure of what the future holds for Covington. He wasn’t immediately ready to endorse a clash with Poirier, who competes at lightweight, and he also wouldn’t completely rule out a trilogy with Usman if Covington continues to rack up victories.

“I don’t know, he’s in a very weird situation having lost to Usman twice,” White said. “Usman’s lapping everybody. I don’t know, we’ve got to see what’s next and talk to Colby and see what he really wants to do. You fight Poirier and then what? He has to go in some type of direction whether he’s gonna go to ‘55 and fight at—I don’t know, we gotta talk.

“Listen, if he stays at 170, he keeps winning, you’ve eventually got to give the kid a shot [at Usman] again.”