Colby Covington expresses interest in fighting “f**king punk” Sean Strickland following UFC 293

Colby Covington is expressing his interest in fighting ‘f**king punk’ Sean Strickland following UFC 293.

It was on Saturday, September 10th at UFC 293 at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia that saw Sean Strickland (28-5 MMA) defeat Israel Adesanya (24-3 MMA) to become the newly crowned UFC middleweight champion.

Just this past Wednesday, UFC CEO, Dana White,  announced that UFC 296, which takes place on Saturday, December 26th, will feature Colby Covington (17-3 MMA) vs reigning champion Leon Edwards (21-3 MMA) in a welterweight title fight.

This will be Covington’s first bout since UFC 272 in March of 2022 where he defeated Jorge Masvidal (35-17 MMA) via unanimous decision.

Edwards, 32, has not lost in the Octagon since December of 2015 and has an impressive 11 victories following that defeat to Usman.

Apparently, Colby Covington is already looking past his upcoming fight with Leon Edwards and taking aim at Sean Strickland.

Speaking with James Lynch, Covington shared his aspirations:

“That’s the beauty of the UFC, it’s such a pure sport. Anybody can win on any given night and if you don’t come ready to fight that night and you have an off night, that’s what can happen.”

Continuing, Colby Covington spoke about UFC 293 saying:

“Obviously, (Israel) Adesanya overlooked him. He thought that he was just gonna be able to breeze through this guy and he probably didn’t train very hard and I think he’s getting a little comfortable up there. He’s made some big paychecks and he’s just not hungry like he used to be. It just opens up the door for all the Middleweights because that’s the easiest guy in the division to beat. Honestly, it opens up the door for me. I might go up and beat his ass. That guy’s a f**king punk. He got his ass knocked out by (Kamaru) Usman like a little scrub. F**king out, unconscious. So imagine what I would do to him as America’s champ.”

Concluding ‘America’s Champ’ spoke about Champ-Champ status (h/t MMAMania):

“That could be the next fight as well. I might go up to Middleweight, steal that Middleweight strap. Champ champ!”

Covington has had two previous shots at UFC gold, but fell short both times at the expense of Kamaru Usman (20-3 MMA), who defeated him first by KO at UFC 245 and the by unanimous decision in the rematch at UFC 268.

Will you be watching this December and do you think Covington can in his 3rd attempt claim UFC gold by defeating ‘Rocky’? Would you like to then see Covington take on Strickland in the cage?

Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!