On June 17, Colby Covington will step into the Octagon in far-off Singapore, where he will battle South Korean star Dong Hyun Kim in the starkest test of his career thus far. Despite the scale of this test, the American Top Team staple is confident he can beat Kim decisively.
Covington broke down this high-stakes showdown on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio:
“I don’t see any huge challenges [in Kim],” he explained. “The big challenge is that he’s got experience, so I’ve just got to be patient and pick my shots in there. But I think I’m better than him everywhere. I think I can out-strike him. If he wants to make it a striking battle, I can out-strike him. He likes to take guys down, he’s shown that in the past with his judo, but that’s not gonna work. That judo, that doesn’t work on wrestlers. Judo [practitioners], we say in the wrestling world, those are the guys that couldn’t make the varsity team in wrestling so they went to the judo team because they take everybody. So I’m prepared for anywhere he wants to bring this fight. I’m going to embarrass him on June 17.”
“I’m very confident that if he tries to make it a grappling match that he’s going to blow his tank,” Covington continued. “He’s going to gas out and he’s going to be asking the ref for a way out before the 15 minutes is up. He doesn’t want to get into a grappling exchange with me. He’s not ready for that type of pace and that type of grind. He doesn’t know what chain wrestling is, and if he wants to get into a grappling match, he’s going to find out the hard way that that’s the worst mistake he could make.”
Covington then weighed in on his plans after this fight, should he leave Singapore with the W. Apparently, he’ll be aiming for a top-5 foe.
“I feel like if I make a big statement and go finish Dong Hyun Kim like I know I’m going to do, that should set me up for a number-one-contendership type fight, with someone like a Stephen Thompson, or Robbie Lawler, or Demian Maia or someone up there in the top 5.”
What’s your prediction for this Colby Covington vs. Dong Hyun Kim fight?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/18/2017.