Colby Covington was pretty quick to rise in the welterweight division with his fighting skills. But it was his trash-talking ability that got him popularity. However, that was a double-edged sword. Not only did ‘Chaos’s big mouth hurt his opponents’ team, but also affected his teammates at the ATT. This caused a major fallout at the celebrated gym. 

But do you know about the man who claims to have played a major role in creating Covington’s notorious personality? Well, if you don’t, then come join us as we take the train to the ATT gym and hear from the man who used to manage ‘Chaos’. 

Meet Dan Lambert, Colby Covington’s ex-manager and ATT head coach

It was Dan Lambert, the founder of American Top Team, who trained Covington in martial arts and trash-talking arts. But little did he know that it would all backfire on him one day. During a conversation with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour ahead of UFC 272, Lambert revealed how he helped in developing Covington’s personality. He said, “I may have put an ingredient or two into the early mix of what you see now, I didn’t think Dr. Frankenstein was going to come along and add every other ingredient in the world to it and make it blow up the way it blew up.” He was indeed referring to ‘Chaos’ causing chaos with his words.

Covington received a lot of backlash from the MMA community when he ranted about Brazil in 2017. Calling out an individual was understandable, but dissing an entire country was indeed something that Lambert didn’t like. Weighing in on this, the ATT head coach said, “If I had seen it going down that direction and knew then what I know now about what a distraction it would be for our gym, I probably would have tried to insert myself a little differently into that equation.”

But with the rise in Covington’s popularity, after he won the interim welterweight title, he began dragging in his own teammates into his trash talks. Be it Jorge Masvidal, Dustin Poirier, or Joanna Jedrzejczyk, ‘Chaos’ didn’t leave anyone out of it. This gave rise to a bit of unrest within the American Top Team gym. Lambert did attempt to bring a cease-fire to the scenario. But the ‘Street Jesus’ decided to publicly take shots at the former interim welterweight champion. This forced the coach to ban Covington and Masvidal from the gym. While Covington never looked back, Masvidal couldn’t stay away and returned about 3 months later. 

In a final note, the ATT head coach said, “I don’t think he needed to add everything else to the mix, but obviously he did and it works for him and when you combine it with the fact that he’s gonna win just about every fight he has because he’s a really talented fighter, it works for him. It just works better in a smaller gym without a million other targets that you feel the need to attack.” Now that Dan Lambert isn’t out there managing Covington, fans have wondered about the one who has taken up that role. 

Does Colby Covington have a manager now?

Following the fallout with Lambert, the 36-year-old began talking to Dana White and Hunter Campbell directly. Being the Chief Business Officer of the UFC, Campbell, along with White, was responsible for matchmaking. And when Covington found out that he could go on to fight strong opponents without a manager, he went ahead and did so. 

During his appearance on Full Send Podcast, back in 2022, Covington said, “I just saw that the managers are middlemen… they don’t really do anything, they’re not going [to go] out there to fight. So, why am I going to pay a lot of money to a manager when they do nothing. I would rather take destiny in my own hands and go talk to Dana and Hunter Campbell is the guy I talk to a lot… that guy is the f*****g GOAT. He’s a beauty, I love that guy.”

Now, Covington has gotten himself a fight against Joaquin Buckley at UFC on ESPN 63. Even though he was left without a manager, ‘Chaos’ seemed to have left no stone unturned in his training. Training under the guidance of Cesar Carneiro and Daniel Valverde, from the Team MMA Masters, the welterweight contender expects to get a win in his next fight.

Do you think Covington could get to victory on the 14th of December? Would it have been easier for ‘Chaos’ to prepare for his fight if he were still associated with the ATT? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.