Colby Covington Makes Huge Changes After the Terrible Title Fight Negotiations with UFC

Colby Covington is notorious for his gimmicks outside the octagon that generates nuclear heat in the MMA community. However, he has always been loyal to his management and his gym, American Top Team. Colby Covington has spoken very highly of his relationship with his manager, Dan Lambert in the past.

However, the recent negotiation issue with the UFC has led Covington to make some big changes. Covington who has been working with Dan lambert for a long time will seek outside the help from Ballengee group. UFC welterweight Micheal Chiesa first broke this news via twitter. Later on, Dan lambert explained the whole scenario in an interview with Score MMA.

Dan Lambert said:
“Colby reached out to me a few weeks ago and said he had talked to some outside management and wanted to see what they can do for him. they have some outside sponsors and some other things that we don’t do.”

Colby Covington was supposed to fight Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title in the main event of Madison Square garden in UFC 244. However, UFC offered him an amount, which was very basic according to Covington. As per Covington, he has done the heavy lifting for the company and he is the former interim champion. So he wants to get compensated accordingly.

The mismanagement led to the title fight not happening at all in UFC 244 as the main event slot is taken by Masvidal vs Diaz now. With the rest of the cards of the year looking stacked, likely, Colby Covington may not fight for the title this year. Explaining the scenario between Covington and UFC, Dan Lambert said:

“There were just some hookups between Colby and the UFC. Each one had an idea on the fighter pay and I guess Kamaru had some similar issue too. The fight just did not happen. and UFC was playing vollyball with the fight with several differet people which happens all the time. those guys have fights to book.”

Dan lambert also made it clear that Covington will still consult him if needed in the future because of the good relationship they have. However, Lambert won’t interfere in the fight negotiations as it will be handled by the Ballengee group.

it’s safe to assume that Colby Covington was not happy with how the negotiations with UFC went for the fight with Kamaru Usman that led him to seek help from outside management. However, lambert also clarified that Colby Covington will not be leaving the American Top Team.