Colby Covington revisited the onset of his beef with
Dustin Poirier that caused him “pain and suffering.”
Covington (17-4) and Poirier (30-9) were former teammates at
American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, where “The Diamond” continues to train. However, a part of ATT since 2011, Covington parted ways with the gym over feuds with Poirier,
Jorge Masvidal and
Joanna Jedrzejczyk .
Covington claims Poirier used to initially utilize him as a wrestling partner, where he allegedly toyed around with the Louisiana native. According to Covington, Poirier started becoming egotistic once his UFC stardom started growing. While Covington wasn’t quite there yet, he claims to have stood his ground against Poirier.
“When we were training together, he was using me everyday just for wrestling. Never wanted to do anything else but just wrestle with me. I was giving him knowledge, giving him information, obviously toying with him like he was an amateur,”
Covington told Submission Radio . “Eventually his ego got to him. He started winning some fights in the UFC and I was still coming up. I hadn’t had the name that he had yet, so his ego got to him. And he started treating people like sh*t. I wasn’t going to stand for it cause I know I’m a better fighter than him. So, I wasn’t going to let him walk all over me and just treat me like sh*t.”
Once Covington started rising to fame, Poirier allegedly started “badmouthing” him over his personality traits. Covington accused Poirier of eventually getting him booted from ATT over “mean” words, which doesn’t make sense to “Chaos,” being a cagefighter. Covington claims the feud was depressing after all he had done for Poirier.
“As soon as I started rising up the ranks and I became the top draw in the company, that’s when he got jealous and envious. He just started bad-mouthing me, ‘Ah, I don’t like the way Colby does this, ah he’s a piece of sh*t person, he said some mean words.’ We’re going to get locked up in a cage in our underwear in front of the whole world and we’re going to try and kill each other, but ‘he can’t say mean words.’ Telling the old gym owner, ‘kick Colby out, he’s a meanie head, he said mean words, kick him out.’ So that’s when the beef started. It sucks, because I did a lot for the kid, man. I helped him a lot with the negotiations… I just felt like snakebit. I was betrayed. It sucks cause I really did a lot for the guy. And for him to turn on me like that, it was depressing almost. That’s why I wanted to fight the guy so bad cause he just caused me a lot of pain and suffering.”
Covington called out Poirier for a welterweight matchup after a unanimous decision win over Masvidal at UFC 272 in 2022. While Poirier said it’s “still on sight” with Covington, “The Diamond” dismissed the callout saying he didn’t want “Chaos” making any money off of him and would rather fight him in the street. However, Covington accuses Poirier of shying away from a recent altercation at a Miami steakhouse. Poirier allegedly walked out of the restaurant after Covington walked up to him, daring him to do something.
“I crossed paths with him three months ago in NYY Steakhouse, Coconut Creek Casino. Which is in the same city that he trains at the gym. And he came by the steakhouse, I looked at him in the eye, I was like, ‘What’s up bitch? Say something, do something.’ And he just walked out of the restaurant, cause he knows, you can talk big in front of the camera. But when you’re in front of someone’s face and you feel their energy and you know what they’re capable of, then it’s a different story. Now you can’t run your mouth… I stood up, I looked at him right in the eyes and he walked out of the restaurant like a good little bitch.”
Poirier is fresh off a lightweight title loss against
Islam Makhachev , where he gave the champ arguably the toughest test in recent years before being submitted in the final round. Meanwhile, Covington is coming off a washout unanimous decision loss against
Leon Edwards at UFC 296 in December, 2023 which was his third failed title bid.
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