Colby Covington Believes His ‘Pace’ Will Help Him Defeat Israel Adesanya at Middleweight: “He’s Not a Well-Rounded Fighter”

UFC’s top welterweight contender Colby Covington is all set to face his arch-nemesis Jorge Masvidal in a grudge match at UFC 272 on March 5th. After winning the bout, ‘Chaos’ hopes to find himself in a trilogy bout against the welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.

However, if he isn’t provided the third match against ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’, he wants his friend and fellow African champion Israel Adesanya next.

In a recent interview with Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, the former UFC welterweight champion revealed that he still has hopes to go up and beat ‘The Last Stylebender’ in the middleweight division.

Covington also made a case for himself, as he believes he can beat the Nigerian-born Kiwi in the speed department and that will be the key to defeating the middleweight champion, Adesanya.

“I’m not opposed to going up to 185 pounds and beating up ‘Stylebender’. That guy, he’s not a well-rounded fighter. He can’t keep up with my pace. I know I can take him down and drown him. So there are a lot of options out there for me,” Covington told Yahoo! Sports.

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Although eyeing for the middleweight strap is still a far-fetched dream, it’s the trilogy bout against Usman that Covington yearns the most. And he still believes that he is the better fighter if the UFC doesn’t schedule the third match.

Colby Covington believes he has the edge over Kamaru Usman in the event of no trilogy fight

In the same interview with Kevin Iole, Covington opined he is still the better fighter if the trilogy fight between him and ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ is not scheduled.

Kamaru Usman and Covington have already clashed twice at UFC 245 and UFC 268. Although Usman KO’d Covington in the first fight, the second one is still believed to be pretty close. Hence, Covington believes he is still on equal footing with Usman.

“If I don’t get a chance to do my third fight with Usman, then it’s okay. Deep down inside, I truly know who’s the better fighter and I can go away with my career knowing that he wasn’t a better fighter and he didn’t prove that to me, there’s still unfinished business but if he wants to walk away from the sport, then that’s his decision. I am not going anywhere, Kevin. I am just getting started. The best is yet to come. So, you might be Usman retiring the next year and Colby [referring to himself] will be the undisputed champ.”

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Do you think Covington can win against Usman or Adesanya? Let us know in the comments below.