Former UFC welterweight Colby Covington trashed Khamzat Chimaev, labeling him a “quitter” after his loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 328.
Chimaev entered his first UFC middleweight title defense against Strickland as a huge favorite, but he lost his belt when the judges awarded Strickland a split decision victory.
In the aftermath of the fight, we heard from Chimaev that he suffered through a brutal weight cut, one that left him gassed out during the fight. He’s said that he will dial in his weight cut if the UFC gives him a rematch with Strickland, and prove that the first fight was a fluke.
But Covington isn’t buying the excuses.
Colby Covington Calls Khamzat Chimaev a ‘Quitter’
Speaking to Submission Radio, Covington laid into Chimaev following his performance against Strickland at UFC 328.
“It was a weird fight, he started making all those excuses for the weight cut, it’s like, bro, you already went up in weight class, it’s not the weight cut, it’s a discipline cut,” Covington said (via Bloody Elbow).
“You’re cut from a different cloth, you can see he has that quitter in him. Like what was he doing pulling guard in the second round, I could never imagine just accepting guard and pulling guard, that’s where girls are supposed to be, girls are supposed to be on the bottom and the guys come on top in missionary.
“I think he’s mentally weak and that’s why I’ve always been excited to compete against him.”
Colby Covington and Khamzat Chimaev Could Meet in RAF
Last month, Covington retired from the UFC and was removed from the roster as a result. Instead of competing in MMA, he wants to focus his time and energy exclusively on RAF, Real American Freestyle, a wrestling promotion that Chimaev is also competing in.
Clearly, all this trash talk from Covington is him trying to set up a potential wrestling match against Chimaev in the RAF, which certainly seems possible given both men are wrestling in the promotion.
If it happens, a Covington vs. Chimaev wrestling match would be, by far, the biggest wrestling match that the RAF has produced yet between two former UFC fighters, and they’ve had quite a few of them come into their wrestling mats in a short amount of time.
For MMA fans, they would surely rather see Covington and Chimaev fight inside the Octagon, but let’s face it, that’s not going to happen.
Instead, they are likely going to wrestle on the RAF wrestling mats, and if it does happen, it will be one of the most highly anticipated wrestling matches of the year.
Up next for Covington in RAF is a wrestling match against Arman Tsarukyan, a teammate of Chimaev, at RAF 11. As for Chimaev, he is set to wrestle Dillon Danis at RAF 10.
Regardless of what happens in those two matches, there is a good chance that the RAF will try to set up the grudge match between Covington and Chimaev on the wrestling mats later this year.
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