Colby Covington is not impressed with the UFC “Freedom 250” card.
Fights for the White House event were announced during the UFC 326 broadcast this past Saturday. Headliners Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje will trade leather for the undisputed UFC Lightweight Championship. Ex-light heavyweight titleholder Alex Pereira is moving up to face Ciryl Gane with the interim heavyweight gold on the line.
Other bouts scheduled for “Freedom 250” include Sean O’Malley vs. Aiemann Zahabi, Mauricio Ruffy vs. Michael Chandler, Bo Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus, and Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia. Some have criticized the card for not living up to the hype of being a White House show, and Covington is one of those detractors.
When asked by MMAJunkie if UFC “Freedom 250” meets expectations on paper, Covington’s response was clear.
“Absolutely not,” Covington said. “It’s piss-poor at best. I think the fans have said it. The fans have spoken. The fans have said they hate it, it’s a terrible card. They promised six or seven title fights. Now they have one title fight and an interim title fight they put together last minute. The thing was just so disorganized. There wasn’t any big, high-ranking American fighters.
“They have Michael Chandler, who is 40 years old, and then Sean O’Malley, who is a great fighter, love Sean, but besides that, who is the guys representing America on the 250th birthday of America? Doesn’t seem like there’s that guy there. It just seems like they don’t care anymore. They made all that money with Paramount, and they’re just happy. It is what it is. The fans have spoken. It’s unfortunate. I think RAF is the place to be. A lot more excitement, a lot more action, and I think the future is a lot brighter for RAF.”
Covington then cleared the air regarding rumors that he was in talks to fight Nickal. He denied that it was ever discussed and he referred to Nickal as a “bozo.” Covington also said that Nickal quit in his TKO loss to Reinier de Ridder.
Do you agree with Colby Covington’s take on the UFC “Freedom 250” card? Chat it up in the comments below.