Colby Covington Takes Aim at Sean Strickland, Discusses Two-Division Aspirations

While some are wondering whether this Saturday represents Colby Covington’s last, best chance at an undisputed title, he already has his sights set on two-division glory.

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship interim welterweight titleholder Covington (17-3), who challenges Leon Edwards (21-3, 1 NC) in the main event of UFC 296 on Saturday in Las Vegas, has been vocal about his plans for the near future. Despite not having fought since last March and despite two of his last four outings being title losses, “Chaos” earned himself another shot against Edwards, thanks in part to his penchant for incendiary statements.

While Covington is a slight underdog going into this week’s matchup, he has already disclosed his next target: UFC middleweight champ Sean Strickland. While Strickland is notorious for expressing his unhinged opinions on a variety of controversial topics, Covington claims to see through Strickland’s public persona, and believes he can shut him down. The 35-year-old told CODE Sports:

“He’s pretending to be everything he wishes I was. I’d love to slap Sean Strickland around. He’s just a pathetic excuse of a human being, the guy has literally no fricking IQ. The guy’s so f****** stupid. The things he says, he needs to get his mouth wired shut and I’m the guy to do it. The UFC knows I’m the one that can end these guys that hate the company and they hate the world, so I would love to fight Sean Strickland.”

Strickland, who shocked the world by upsetting Israel Adesanya for the 185-pound title in September, is set to defend his title against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 on Jan. 20. While the middleweight division has no dearth of contenders waiting for the next shot, Covington expressed his disinclination to face a fellow contender in his hypothetical middleweight debut, even a former champ such as Robert Whittaker.

“No, that ship has sailed,” Covington said. “Robert, he lost the title and then he got beat in a contender fight so he’s just not relevant anymore, he doesn’t make sense for me. I’m the top of the division, I’m about to be welterweight champion of the world, so I only want the biggest and best fights the UFC has to offer and I know they wouldn’t even waste my time and waste their time to try and put that fight together.”