Colby Covington unloaded on Paddy Pimblett and issued a challenge for the UFC‘s upcoming White House event. Covington was not impressed Pimblett’s performance at UFC 324 last Saturday and wants to welcome him to the welterweight division.
Pimblett faced Justin Gaethje for the interim lightweight championship at UFC 324. It was an entertaining fight, but ‘The Baddy’ came up short. Gaethje earned a unanimous decision victory to capture the interim title and secure an undisputed lightweight title shot against Ilia Topuria.
Covington had a previous run-in with Pimblett backstage last year after the Englishman’s win over Michael Chandler. Now that Pimblett won’t be fighting Topuria, Covington wants to settle their score inside the octagon.
“[Pimblett] probably weighs more than me at walk-around weight anyway. I want to present that idea to the UFC: ‘Hey, me and Paddy. A British guy and a USA guy on the White House lawn would be amazing,” Covington told talkSPORT. “I think the fight would get the fans excited, and there’s definitely some turmoil between us. He doesn’t like me, I don’t like him, so let’s get locked in the cage and handle our differences.”
Paddy Pimblett Didn’t Hold Back When Sharing His Thoughts on Colby Covington
Paddy Pimblett recently sounded off on Colby Covington and didn’t hold back when sharing how he truly felt about him.
While documenting his preparation for UFC 324, Pimblett shared his thoughts on Covington and their previous run-in. Pimblett said the former interim welterweight champion puts on an act when cameras are around to stay relevant.
“Most people talk [expletive] in front of the camera. The worst and biggest prime example is [Covington], you piece of [expletive]. No one likes Colby Covington. He’s a proper bad helmet,” Pimblett said on his YouTube channel. “[Donald] Trump doesn’t even like him. Trump probably like me more than him. I’ve won more fights in front of President Trump than he’s won.”
Covington Says Main Event Pressure Was Too Much for Pimblett
Covington also weighed in on Pimblett’s performance against Gaethje at UFC 324.
‘Chaos’, who was in attendance at UFC 324, criticized Pimblett for his approach and overall performance. During his interview with talkSPORT, Covington said Gaethje exposed ‘The Baddy’s weaknesses.
“[Pimblett] didn’t look very good, he looked sluggish, he didn’t look very fast, hands down a lot,” Pimblett told talkSPORT. “Just very amateur, rookie mistakes that he made, but he’s never been in a main event spotlight.”
Covington believes the pressure of competing in the main event was too much for Pimblett to handle. He said the media requirements, along with the weight cut and fight preparation, were more distracting than ‘The Baddy’ expected.
“The weight cutting, the media work you have to do leading up to the fight. You have to handle big loads, so I think he realized it’s a lot tougher out there than [Pimblett] thought it was,” Covington said. “He was talking a big game saying he was going to be champion, but he’s never been in that spotlight.”
He added:
“[Pimblett] got that spotlight and he didn’t pass the test. He froze under the pressure.”
Colby Covington Calls Out Paddy Pimblett for UFC’s White House Event