Kamaru Usman and Emil Meek are going to have their often rescheduled battle finally take place this January at UFC Fight Night St. Louis.
One fighter that Usman wants to meet in the Octagon is Colby Covington, whom Usman claims is nothing short of afraid of him.
“We were offered Colby Covington, he said no,” Usman said on The MMA Hour. “Right away he said, ‘No, I don’t want anything to do with that guy.’ They tried to make fight again two weeks later. Then something transpired, I don’t know what it was, but they tried to make fight again, and Colby said no, absolutely not. Then for the third time they offered it, this was supposed to be my main event, Jan. 14, my main event. Obviously you see why it took so long get a headliner for that card. It was supposed to be me and Colby to headline that card. But he turned it down. Colby only wants to go after the guys he feels that are old and have an athletic advantage and cardio advantage to maybe try to push them into deep waters. He knows that plays no part with me. You can’t out-wrestle me, you can’t out-strike me, you don’t have more power than me. Basically he sees this, he’s so afraid to where he was running to nobody but all the older guys who are on their way down. That’s all they want.”
Covington doesn’t have a fight scheduled at the moment and was last seen defeating Damien Maia by decision at UFC Fight Night Sao Paulo.
The one thing Usman does believe that Covington has done right recently is to get MMA fans to care about him.
“He’s actually getting people to care about him,” Usman said. “Before that, no one cared about him. Absolutely nothing. He would win fight after fight, but no one cared. But now that he actually showed his true colors, people are starting to care about him. So the fight symbolizes more than just me going in there and stomping his ass. It’s going to be different.”
UFC Fight Night St. Louis takes place on Sunday, January 14 from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri with Jeremy Stephens and Doo Ho Choi headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on Fox Sports 1.
