Colby Covington's months of trash talk -- and in-cage success -- has paid off, and he'll have his first crack at UFC gold in June against Rafael dos Anjos.
The fight, originally planned for Brazil, got moved to Chicago for UFC 225 on June 9. When asked by Fightful.com if the Conor McGregor bus attack incident and subsequent reshuffling of several shows played into it, Covington had other theories.
"It had nothing to do with the McGregor incident. They wanted this moment in American history to happen on U.S. soil. The filthy animals in Brazil don't deserve it," said Covington. "If we get the steroid version of RDA, it'll probably take me until the second or third round to finish him. If we get the clean version, he's leaving on a stretcher. That's a spoiler for you."
Never one to pass up an opportunity to take a shot at a big name, Covington also reacted to the issues McGregor faced in New York.
"I was actually getting on a plane to New York as it happened. He's a coked up little leprechaun. It's funny how I put a tweet that King Colby the bounty hunter was coming after him, he turned himself in. He knows what would happen. I would dunk that nerd underwater and make him quit," said Covington.
Despite the fact that he has a huge title fight facing him, Covington doesn't seem concerned about the task at hand. In fact, he says that dos Anjos is nothing special, and that he hasn't really put in a ton of training time in preparation for the June pay--per-view spectacular.
"I haven't put that much work in in the gym, but RDA doesn't have anything I haven't seen before. I've trained with the best fighters in the world. Jorge Masvidal, Dustin Poirier, Mike Brown, Gleison Tibau -- a guy that beat RDA before. I'll be prepared for anything he throws at me," said Covington. "Tony Martin's been a great addition. He's a wizard. He's training two days after his fight. That's unheard of. His energy is great to have in the room. He's taking everyone to the next level, myself included."
In the full interview, Colby Covington (13-1) discusses his interim welterweight title fight against Rafael Dos Anjos (28-9) at UFC 225 on June 9, as well as his disdain for Ronda Rousey's UFC run, and more. You can see his comments about Rousey below.
