Colby Covington Will Finish ‘One Trick Pony’ Demian Maia and Move on to Tyron Woodley

Besides the return of MMA legend Lyoto Machida, the eyes will be on the co-main event at Sao Paulo when Colby Covington takes on a humongous test in grappling wizard Demian Maia. It was just back at UFC 214 that Maia finally got his shot at a UFC welterweight title, only to be bested by champion Tyron Woodley. Covington feels that Maia is the only guy that stands in the way of him knocking on gold’s door as well. He not only thinks he can do it, but thinks he can put on a better performance against Maia that Woodley.

“It’s a pretty easy fight to train for [against Demian Maia]. To be honest, I’m training for Tyron Woodley. I’m gonna’ finish Demian Maia. I’m gonna dominate, dismantle Demian Maia. The different between me and Tyron Woodley is that Tyron Woodley fights nervous, he fights scared. He doesn’t wanna get tired, so the thing with Tyron Woodley is the he doesn’t know how to push the pace, he doesn’t have cardio. He doesn’t have heart. He has a heart, but he doesn’t have heart. There’s a difference.”

Tomorrow night on @FS1 I will stake claim to @ufc gold. #ufcsaopaulo #fuckbrazil pic.twitter.com/6sps78fSzX

— Colby Covington (@ColbyCovMMA) October 27, 2017

“When me and Demian Maia fight, I’m gonna completely destroy him with my grappling after he wears down, and I’m gonna’ beat him way more than Tyron Woodley did. Yeah, 100 percent. After I finish Demian Maia, lay him to rest in his home country Sao Paulo, Brazil, I do believe I’m next for the title against Tyron Woodley. Demian is the last fighter to fight Tyron Woodley for the title, and when I go out there and beat Demian Maia more impressively than Tyron Woodley I do believe I’m next for the title shot.” — Colby Covington speaking to MMA Fighting.

Colby Covington is not timid with the trash talk. He’s even spoken to us exclusively about doing something we can’t repeat with Tyron Woodley’s face. But is it just talk, or a promise? We all listened to prospect Darren Till’s words about what he was going to do to Cowboy Cerrone, in hindsight they sound downright prophetic now. Can Covington make good on his predictions and truly upset one of the best grapplers in all of MMA? That’s what we’ll all be watching to find out tonight.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/28/2017.