{"id":380937,"date":"2021-04-02T08:45:57","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T15:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=380937"},"modified":"2021-04-02T08:45:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T15:45:57","slug":"colby-covington-says-he-will-be-the-unofficial-backup-for-ufc-261-plans-to-be-in-attendance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/colby-covington-says-he-will-be-the-unofficial-backup-for-ufc-261-plans-to-be-in-attendance\/","title":{"rendered":"Colby Covington says he will be the unofficial backup for UFC 261, plans to be in attendance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colby Covington says he will be in attendance for UFC 261 which sees Kamaru Usman defend his welterweight title against Jorge Masvidal.<\/p>\n

For months now, the talk was Covington would face Masvidal and the two would coach The Ultimate Fighter. Yet, with the UFC having a full capacity crowd in Jacksonville<\/a>, the promotion decided to book the rematch with left Covington on the outside looking in.<\/p>\n

However, according to Covington, he says he plans to be at UFC 261 as the backup fighter, despite the UFC not telling him he will be.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m going to evaluate things when that fight happens. Everybody knows the UFC hasn\u2019t told me, but I think it\u2019s pretty self-explanatory that I\u2019m the backup guy,” Covington said to The Schmo<\/a>. “If anything happens, anybody gets COVID, anybody gets cold feet and pulls out of that fight, I\u2019m showing up. That\u2019s right down the road from me. We\u2019re in Miami, Fla., right now. That\u2019s a three-and-a-half-hour, four-hour ride. I\u2019ll take a bus over to Jacksonville, and I\u2019ll be showing up for the fight. I\u2019ll be there.<\/p>\n

“So, if anybody pulls out, I\u2019ll be stepping in and we\u2019ll evaluate from there,” Covington continued. “I just want to put on good fights and capitalize on the prime of my career, which is what I\u2019m in. So we\u2019ll see what happens in a couple of weeks.”<\/p>\n

Although Colby Covington says he is the backup fighter, the UFC hasn’t offered him the role. Instead, he is doing it by himself but doesn’t know if he will officially weigh-in.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know. That\u2019s up to Dana White and Hunter Campbell. That\u2019s their decision. That\u2019s their business and what they want. But I\u2019m staying ready. I have my weight ready to go. I\u2019m training, preparing like I\u2019m fighting April 24 for the world title,” Covington said. “So if they want me to weigh in, I\u2019d love to weigh in. If not, it\u2019s okay. I\u2019ll be there in attendance, and I\u2019ll be ready to go in case anybody pulls out last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, Covington has his eyes on the UFC 261 main event and plans to fight the winner.<\/p>\n

Would you like to see Colby Covington face the winner of Usman-Masvidal 2?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colby Covington says he will be in attendance for UFC 261 which sees Kamaru Usman defend his welterweight title against Jorge Masvidal. For months now, the talk was Covington would face Masvidal and the two would coach The Ultimate Fighter. Yet, with the UFC having a full capacity crowd in Jacksonville, the promotion decided to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54463,"featured_media":326400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[22188,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nColby Covington says he will be the unofficial backup for UFC 261, plans to be in attendance | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Colby Covington says he will be in attendance for UFC 261 which sees Kamaru Usman defend his welterweight title against Jorge Masvidal.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/colby-covington-says-he-will-be-the-unofficial-backup-for-ufc-261-plans-to-be-in-attendance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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