Off Guard: Mike Brown says Jorge Masvidal-Colby Covington fight 'theoretically' could happen
American Top Team coach Mike Brown says a fight between teammates and former best friends Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington could happen soon.
“How about Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington,” Brown told MMA Junkie. “We’ll put two of our guys in there. How about that? Theoretically it could happen. Two guys from the same team, the guys will only fight for a belt, so that’s a good problem to have if you have that problem, but it looks like they’re both getting close to that point.”
Friends turned enemies, Masvidal and Covington saw their relationship fall apart when, according to Masvidal, Covington failed to pay his longtime boxing coach the right amount of money for training him ahead of his interim welterweight title win over Rafael dos Anjos in June 2018.
The friendship soured even more as both fighters started climbing the welterweight ranks. Masvidal will headline UFC 244 on Nov. 2, when he takes on Nate Diaz for the “BMF” title. Covington, meanwhile, will headline the ensuing pay-per-view, when he challenges 170-pound champion Kamaru Usman on Dec. 14 at UFC 245. Should both Masvidal and Covington win those fights, the former roommates could throw down.
After Covington put Masvidal and fellow teammate Dustin Poirier on blast, he created a lot of drama at ATT, but Brown says gym owner Dan Lambert has everything under control.
“Dan Lambert is the guy coordinating things and smoothing things over, and it’s been peaceful at the gym as of late,” Brown said.