{"id":293949,"date":"2023-09-25T20:35:10","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T20:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/?p=293949"},"modified":"2023-09-25T20:35:10","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T20:35:10","slug":"covington-claims-makhachev-and-nurmagomedov-are-scared-to-face-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/mma\/covington-claims-makhachev-and-nurmagomedov-are-scared-to-face-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Covington claims\u00a0Makhachev and Nurmagomedov are &apos;scared&apos; to face him"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Colby Covington claims\u00a0Islam Makhachev and\u00a0Khabib Nurmagomedov have been &#8216;scared&#8217; to face him ahead of UFC return in title match against Leon Edwards<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Covington, who hasn&#8217;t competed for 18 months, will face Edwards for his title<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Makhachev, meanwhile, has been debating jumping up a class to welterweight<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Mail Sport&#8217;s new WhatsApp Channel: Get the breaking news and exclusives here\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Colby Covington has insisted that\u00a0Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov have been &#8216;scared&#8217; to fight him ahead of his long-awaited UFC return.<\/p>\n<p>The welterweight is set to return to the octagon in December when he will face Leon Edwards for his division title following a 21-month fighting absence.<\/p>\n<p>He beat Jorge Masvidal at UFC 272 in March 2022 and a reported altercation took place between the former friends in Miami after the fight.<\/p>\n<p>Though Covington claimed to have suffered brain damage in the altercation, he is fit enough to get back into the ring and challenge Edwards in the main event of UFC 296 on December 2016.<\/p>\n<p>One of his potential rivals if he is to win the belt, Makhachev, has spoken about jumping up to the welterweight division in recent times, and Covington has been quick to dismiss any possible competition.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/25\/19\/75822373-0-image-a-26_1695668346712.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Colby Covington (pictured) has claimed that\u00a0Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov have been &#8216;scared&#8217; to fight him<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/25\/20\/75822437-0-image-a-27_1695668421821.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Makhachev (right) has been debating stepping up to welterweight, where he could come face-to-face with Covington<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/25\/20\/75822569-0-image-a-28_1695668509363.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Nurmagomedov, meanwhile, has retired, but Covington said he avoided fighting when he was an active competitor<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;There&#8217;s that little mongoloid, he&#8217;s been talking a little bit, saying that he wants to come up and fight in a real man&#8217;s division,&#8217; Covington told James Lynch. &#8216;He&#8217;s in a little boy&#8217;s weight class and I&#8217;m talking about Islam Makhachev.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;He&#8217;s fighting in a little man&#8217;s weight class. He&#8217;s fighting little midgets and he&#8217;s barely beating midgets. Split decisions, split draws, pathetic.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;That little mongoloid&#8217;s been talking, he&#8217;s been saying some things about how he wants to come up to a real man&#8217;s division and face a real man in America&#8217;s champ. So, that might present itself as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I think that&#8217;s a big superfight and I think that&#8217;s a fight the fans want to see. We&#8217;re the same weight class. He probably weighs more than me, honestly. He probably walks around 190.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;He&#8217;s pretty yoked up. He&#8217;s a big-little guy that cuts all that weight to get the advantage cause he&#8217;s scared to fight real men like me.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/25\/20\/75822503-0-image-a-29_1695668512934.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The Russian duo are good friends, with Covington saying\u00a0Makhachev has been &#8216;riding the coattails of\u00a0Nurmagomedov<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/25\/20\/75822947-0-image-a-36_1695668848875.jpg\" height=\"465\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Covington will face Leon Edwards in the main event of UFC 296 for the welterweight title<\/p>\n<p>Makhachev has been doing well with the UFC, beating featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 282 to take his record to 24-1.<\/p>\n<p>His only career defeat so far came at the hands of\u00a0Adriano Martins in October 2015, but Covington insisted he played a helping hand in the Brazilian&#8217;s victory.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I trained the guy that knocked him out in the first round,&#8217; he said. &#8216;A guy in Adriano Martins, I trained the kid, southpaw to southpaw to get ready for Makhachev because they knew he was a wrestler-southpaw when I was at that gym. I trained Adriano to throw that exact hook and knock him out like that and put him unconscious.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;There are a lot of holes in his game. He&#8217;s talked a big game. He&#8217;s tried to ride the coattails of Khabib&#8217;s [Nurmagomedov] success and what he was able to accomplish and he&#8217;s not Khabib. It&#8217;s not the same thing. Khabib was scared of me. He didn&#8217;t want to come up to welterweight because of me. So, even his daddy knows it&#8217;s not smart to come up to welterweight.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/mma\/article-12559347\/Colby-Covington-Islam-Makhachev-Khabib-Nurmagomedov-scared.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colby Covington claims\u00a0Islam Makhachev and\u00a0Khabib Nurmagomedov have been &#8216;scared&#8217; to face him ahead of UFC return in title match against <span class=\"more-text\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Covington claims\u00a0Makhachev and Nurmagomedov are &amp;apos;scared&amp;apos; to face him - Sportstons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/mma\/covington-claims-makhachev-and-nurmagomedov-are-scared-to-face-him\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Covington claims\u00a0Makhachev and Nurmagomedov are &amp;apos;scared&amp;apos; 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