Dan Lambert is the owner of American Top Team (ATT) and the manager of former UFC Interim Welterweight Champion Colby Covington, among others.
It was recently announced that Covington would be next to challenge Kamaru Usman for the UFC Welterweight Title, which is something the UFC has already confirmed with Lambert.
“Yeah, I’ve talked to them and they’ve confirmed to me that Colby’s next with Usman. Pending Usman’s status coming back from surgery that he just had, which apparently is not very serious and he should be back sometime in the summer. I’m not surprised, Colby was the interim champ…as far as I’m concerned, he’s still the interim champ. I’ve never gotten any legal notice that he’s not anymore, from them as required by the contract. I mean, who else would you put Usman up against right now,” says Lambert in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s James Lynch.
There is no word yet on when that potential title bout will go down, as Usman is recovering from surgery that was mentioned by Lambert in the above statement.
Amanda Nunes is the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion and a member of ATT and according to Lambert, a bout with former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Holly Holm makes the most sense.
“That fight makes a lot of sense, but it takes two to tango. I don’t know where Holly is on her contract or when she’s fighting or where she’s fighting, that opponent would make a lot of sense. She’s the only 135 pound champ that Amanda hasn’t faced and beaten and I think that she’d love to do that, Holly’s still got a strong appeal. Holly’s a draw, I don’t know if that’s residual effect from being the one to defeat Ronda and stop that freight train or of people like the way she fights or the preacher’s daughter or what it is. She’s a draw and Amanda wants to fight people who are draws because that means more money for Amanda,” says Lambert.
Nunes and Holm were rumored to be fighting at UFC 237, but that bout was eventually scrapped because Nunes said she didn’t have enough prep time after competing at UFC 232.
