Colby Covington claims he is “the reason” why Khabib Nurmagomedov never fought at 170 to keep unbeaten record

Colby Covington believes he is the reason why Khabib Nurmagomedov never fought at welterweight.

Nurmagomedov has been a lightweight for the majority of his career and defended his lightweight title at UFC 254 against Justin Gaethje. Following the win, he announced his retirement from the sport with an undefeated record. Yet, for Covington, he claims the Dagestani champion was only unbeaten because he was fighting at lightweight.

Covington also says Nurmagomedov was cutting an excess amount of weight to avoid fighting people around his size.

“I think I’m the man and I’m the reason that he doesn’t come up to 170 in the first place,”. There’s a reason Khabib cuts all that weight,” Covington said to Submission Radio. “Everybody knows he walks around at 190, he is bigger than me. But, I’m a real man, I fight at my weight class. I’ll fight a man any size. Khabib wants to beat up little midgets.”

“Okay, that’s cool, Khabib, you beat up a bunch of little guys, a bunch of little midgets. But you’re not gonna fight in a real man’s weight class like 170 and welterweight because you know I’m the man,” he continued. “You know who’s here, you know you have no chance to keep that undefeated record. There is a reason why he is looking to cut a bunch of weight and there is a reason I’ll fight anybody alive.”

Colby Covington is coming off a fifth-round TKO win over Tyron Woodley to return to the win column. Before that, he suffered a fifth-round TKO loss to Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title.

Khabib Nurmagomedov retired at a perfect 29-0 with three defenses of his lightweight title. During his title reign, he submitted Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, and Conor McGregor.

What do you make of Colby Covington claiming he is the reason why Khabib Nurmagomedov never fought at 170?

on October 28