Tyron Woodley and Colby Covington are two of the fiercest rivals in the UFC welterweight division. If they ever end up fighting, Woodley intends to punish his nemesis in the cage by stretching the MMA rule-set to its limits.
Woodley opened up on his beef with Covington during a recent Instagram Live Q&A session with fans.
He began by recounting his first encounters with Covington, who he initially flew into St. Louis to serve as a training partner.
“Colby Covington was my training partner that I flew into St. Louis, I paid him $500 a week to pretty much get his ass kicked,” Woodley said.
Woodley added that he was reluctant to go all-out in his training sessions with Covington because he didn’t want to hurt him. Now that their relationship has soured, however, he’d gladly let loose on his former training partner in the cage.
“In a fight, it’s different,” he said. “I’m going to make the choice to break your arm, hurt you. I’m going to dance the line on what’s legal and illegal in that fight.”
Woodley and Covington have been jawing back and forth for years. As of yet, however, they have not stepped foot into the cage together. Woodley says that’s because Covington will only accept the fight for “astronomical” amounts of money.
Today, when many of the UFC’s biggest matchups are being canceled and postponed due to the coronavirus, Woodley and Covington have once again been linked to a matchup. Yet Woodley doesn’t seem confident it’ll happen based on his rival’s significant asks.
“It ain’t me,” Woodley said. “He’s asking for astronomical amounts of money — Conor McGregor ain’t making that kind of money. Why do you gotta make that money to fight me? You fought [Kamaru] Usman for what you were scheduled to make. You fought [Rafael dos Anjos], you fought [Robbie Lawler], but when it comes to Tyron Woodley, you want five, six, seven million bucks because you’re scared, and you know you’re going to get smashed, and you know it’s going to be so embarrassing that you may want to retire after this.
“He’s trying to ask for the amount of money that he can go retire in his trailer home in frickin’ Florida with all his B-level, C-level, D-level strippers that he’s hired.”
What do you think of this scathing attack from Tyron Woodley? How do you think Colby Covington will respond?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 3/31/2020.