Colby Covington is not the kind to take the high road. No. If you talk trash ‘Chaos’, he will come back at you come back hard. This is why it was not surprising to see the former 170lbs interim champ go scorched earth at Islam Makhachev, even dragging in Khabib Nurmagomedov, after the lightweight champ’s unsavory comments about him earlier this month.

“Makhachev had my name in his mouth last week in an interview just saying ‘Oh Colby’s all talk blah blah blah.’ So, you know, he’s all talk. He said he’s gonna come to welterweight, he’s never gonna come to welterweight. He’s a weight bully, he weighs more than me. Like I’m 180. I walk around at 180, 182 max. So that guy’s like probably 190, 195 just like his little buddy Khabib, you know,” Covington told fan favorite MMA analyst extraordinaire, ‘MMA Guru’ in an interview.

Makhachev, of course, has long wanted to become a two-division champ and has talked about fighting for the welterweight title repeatedly. The UFC, however, is not as enthusiastic about this, which is the main reason the Dagestani phenom hasn’t moved up. The other thing that Covington pointed out, however, is very true.

Nurmagomedov in his heyday and Makhachev in the present indeed cut a lot of weight to make the 155-pound lightweight limit. On the other hand, Covington is famous for not cutting much weight. However, it is worth noting that ‘Chaos’ is very much the exception since almost all fighters cut significant amounts of weight to fight at a lower weight class. On the other hand, Covington also accused Khabib and his cohorts of something far more serious- cheating.

“They’re just weight bullies, they didn’t want to fight at their natural weight class because they’re scared. They want to have that strength advantage on fight night. And all of them do stero**s. Everybody knows they’ve been caught on stero**s, and you know their cousin, Umar has been caught on it and the other one in Bellator [Usman Nurmagomedov],” ‘Chaos’ added. This of course raises a very important question.

Is Colby Covington right in accusing Khabib, Umar, and Islam Makhachev of PED usage?

Khabib and his cousin, Umar Nurmagomedov have never failed a drug test, let’s just get that out of the way. However, Makhachev did indeed test positive for a banned substance, Meldonium back in 2016 and was initially suspended for three months by USADA (later revoked). But the substance he tested positive for had been banned just a few months before Makhachev’s drug test. The Dagestani claimed that he had taken it back when it wasn’t banned, and thus shouldn’t be suspended.

The Athletic Commission indeed found that Makhachev was “without fault or negligence” and overturned the suspension on Makhachev. But that was many years ago. Usman Nurmagomedov, on the other hand, was caught using a banned substance just last year, after his clash against Brent Primus for the Bellator middleweight title at Bellator 300.

Unlike Makhachev’s case, however, Usman was handed (and served) a six-month ban by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC), and his win over Primus was overturned to a no-contest. The Dagestani Bellator star claims was through a medication he was taking and not through a steroid, but that is the one case that Covington can point to as any evidence of the Dagestani camp using PEDs.

More importantly, however, there have been no other cases of Khabib and his Dagestani cohorts testing positive for PEDs. This is why it is not fair to call Khabib, Umar, and Islam Makhachev dr*g cheats as Covington has done even if his other criticisms of Khabib and Co. have some merit. What do you think about Colby Covington’s comments about Khabib and his Dagestani camp?