Colby Covington has a wild prediction for his upcoming fight with Demian Maia

On October 28, the UFC will return to Brazil with UFC Fight Night 119. In the evening’s co-headliner, rising UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington will face the biggest test of his career thus far as he battles recent UFC welterweight title challenger Demian Maia.

In advance of this fight, Covington is starting to embrace his role as something of a heel in the welterweight division. In fact, he’s starting consider himself the “supervillain” of the division.

“I am the supervillain, and this is my division now,” he told MMAjunkie. “I own this division. I’m a heel – it’s OK. I expect the fans to hate me, anyway. I don’t care about the fans. This isn’t about the fans anymore. This is about me being the best fighter in the world – and that’s what I am.”

“I’m the No. 1 fighter in the welterweight division right now. Tyron Woodley, he’s a fake paper champ. Demian Maia, he’s a thing of the past. I’m going to put him to rest and the Brazilian crowd is going to be silent.”

So just how does Colby Covington expect his fight with Maia to go?

“I do respect the guy,” Covington said of Maia. “That’s why I’m going to put him to sleep in the first round. It won’t be pretty. I know Halloween is coming up, so it’s going to be a nightmare in Sao Paulo for him.”

“I’m coming to take out Demian Maia in impressive fashion,” he added. “And Tyron Woodley is next. Mark my words, you heard it here first in this interview: I will be welterweight champion early beginning of next year.”

Do you think Colby Covington can deliver on these lofty predictions? Share your take on his upcoming fight with Demian Maia in the comments section.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/3/2017.