On Wednesday, March 18, Colby Covington joined the guys at Submission Radio, to discuss why his last minute replacement fight against Tyron Woodley, ultimately didn’t happen.
As the story goes, Woodley was supposed to fight Leon Edwards on this weekends UFC London card.
Due to the COVID-19 issues escalating daily, the UFC found out six days before the card that they woundn’t be able to hold the event in London, due to president Trump putting a travel ban on international travel.
In a last minute effort to save the card, the UFC was attempting to switch the venue from London, to a place in the US.
Upon receiving this information, Woodley’s original opponent, Leon Edwards, made the decision to pull out of the fight, due to the changes being too last minute and his team having families to take care of, as well.
Once the news broke that Edwards was out, in stepped Covington in an attempt to save the main event, and the entire fight card. That fight never came to fruition either.
The guys at Submission Radio spoke with Covington, after the fight had officially fell through.
One of the questions they asked Covington is who approached who first. Did the UFC approach Covington, or did he approach the UFC?
“The (UFC) approached me,” said Covington. “But if they hadn’t approached me, about five minutes later I was about approach them.”
Covington went on to explain exactly what happened, as to why the fight ultimately fell through.
“And, then, you know, all of a sudden, Monday roles around, and – and Trump puts the ban that no more large gatherings of ten people of more, and once that came to fruition, we knew that the fight was gonna get canceled, Monday night, and that’s what ended up happening,” said Covington.
Both Covington, and Woodley are telling two different versions of the story.
While Covington claimes that the fight didn’t happen due to president Trump’s newly instated regulations, Woodley claims Covington simply priced himself out of getting the fight, during negotiations.
Denis, with Submission Radio, did ask about whether the UFC and Covington were able to come to an agreement during their negotiations for the last minute fight against Woodley, but Covington did not give a definitive answer on whether or not they were able to.
Instead, Covington acknowledged that the UFC knows who does the most numbers, when it comes to viewership and doing the most business for their fights.
Covington went on to state that he has his eyes set on a rematch with the welterweight champ, Kamaru Usman. He claims that he lost the fight due to a ‘fake stoppage, fake eye poke (by Usman), and a fake referee, (Mark Goddard).
Although, Covington has acknowledged that there is an entire promotional video package ready to go, anytime, for a fight against Woodley, it doesn’t seem to be the fight he wants at this moment in time.
As it stands right now, there will be no UFC card this weekend. Instead, they promotion will be airing ten hours of past UFC events, in light of the recent COVID-19 woes.
