Colby Covington says he’s on good terms with the UFC. |
Getty/UFC
Colby
Covington is excited about his future with Real American
Freestyle, but he won’t completely rule out a
UFC comeback before all is said and done.
The former welterweight contender informed the UFC of his
retirement last week, potentially ending a 17-bout tenure with the
Las Vegas-based promotion. While Covington appeared to be upset
after missing out on the
UFC White House, “Chaos” now claims the he’s on good terms with
the organization.
“I wasn’t let go. I’m still a UFC fighter. I’ll always be a UFC
fighter,” Covington said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “If I come back to
fight again, it will be in the UFC. I’m still under contract with
the UFC. All is still good with the UFC. I’m thankful for
everything they did for me.
“It’s 50-50 [if I fight MMA again.] I know I have a lot left in the
tank. I know there’s a lot of good miles still left on the tread,
but I don’t know. I can’t predict the future. Only God knows, so I
trust God’s plan.”
Back to His Roots
For now, however, Covington is focused on returning to his
wrestling roots at RAF. After earning victories over Luke
Rockhold and Dillon
Danis earlier this year, Covington is slated to wrestle
Chris
Weidman at RAF 9 on May 30. Looking ahead, Covington has his
sights set on the the biggest matchups possible in the wrestling
organization.
“This is the next step in my combat sports career — to join
wrestling full-time. My first true love and passion,” Covington
said. “I started wrestling when I was in diapers, and I was a
little kid and it was family business to go into the wrestling
world. So now we can get back to doing what I love the most, which
is wrestling. It’s amazing what Chad Bronstein has done with Real
American Freestyle, and [retiring from UFC] was just the proverbial
red tape that needed to be done to be able to clear up the biggest
and best matches in RAF, so there’s no limitations to who I can
wrestle. I want to wrestle everybody. I want to wrestle Arman
[Tsarukyan], I want to wrestle [Khamzat
Chimaev]. I want to wrestle ‘Marty’ Usman — we have unfinished
business, we need to finish this trilogy.
“I want to wrestle all these UFC guys, but I can’t get too ahead of
myself. This weekend, I have a tough competitor in front of me with
Chris
Weidman. But it was just a formality, and Hunter gave me his
blessing, and it’s all good. It’s all love. … I’m moving onto
bigger and better things.”