UFC 272: COLBY COVINGTON VS JORGE MASVIDAL (FORMER FRIENDS, BITTER RIVALS)
UFC 272 is set to take place at T. Mobile Arena Las Vegas, Nevada on 5 March, 2022. This UFC PPV card is headlined by the two biggest stars in the game, Colby “Chaos” Covington and Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal. This is the ultimate grudge match between two former friends and now bitter rivals, this fight took more than 3 years in the making. Fans around the globe are thrilled to watch this fight, not only for the (Colby and Jorge) fight skills but for the interesting storyline. Both fighters used to be friends and now they want to take each other’s heads off, You cannot write a better script than that, this fight is going to sell itself.
Background
In 2011, American Top Team (one of the most notable MMA gym in the world) recruited Colby Covington to improve their wrestling department of the gym; As Colby was former NCAA All America from Oregon State University. Colby Covington was aspired to become Olympic Champion in wrestling, but he switched to mixed martial arts after joining ATT. In this very gym, Colby met Jorge Masvidal formerly known as “Street Jesus” (because he grew up fighting in streets), both fighter started training with each other. Jorge was prolific striker but his wrestling did not compliment his stand up, so Colby helped him with wrestling and Jorge helped Colby with striking in return. They both became very good friends, and assisted each other to develop and improve their MMA skills, Masvidal used to support Colby with his expenses and let him stay in his house as Colby didn’t have enough money to afford a place himself.
Friendship
Jorge Masvidal was fighting in Strike Force for long time and in 2013 he came to UFC and won his debuted fight against Tim Means. Masvidal had already fought 5 times in UFC before Colby debuted in August 2014 against Wang Anying and won that fight in 1st round via ground and pound TKO. They were both in each other’s corner in their fight and they were ready to take on UFC by storm. Jorge Masvidal used to fight in lightweight (155 lbs.) division while Colby Covington always fought in welterweight (170 lbs.) division. Jorge Masvidal was getting a lot of decision wins and also loses some fights via split decisions; after losing split decision fight to Al Iaquinta, Masvidal decided to go up in welterweight division.
Colby Covington was performing consistently well, and he was dominating all of his opponents with his wrestling and only loses 1 fight. While Jorge was inconsistent, he usually won 2 fights and then loses 1 he was not getting finishes. After the fight against Dong Hyun Kim, Colby had 1 fight left in his contract with UFC, UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby informed Colby’s manager Dan Lambert that organization was not going to give Colby new contract because of his fight style which was considered boring. After that, Colby just changed his whole personality and developed bit of character, which he showed in his post-fight interview after a win against Demian Maia in Brazil. He started calling names and went after Brazilian people that really riled up the home crowd, but all of a sudden people started paying attention to Colby. This persona of Colby really worked it out for him as he got the title shot in his next fight against Rafael Dos Anjos; he fought for Interim UFC welterweight Belt on June 2018 and became the World Champion.
Start of the Rivalry
At that time, Jorge was on 2 fight losing streak and he took a whole year out to rediscover himself and Colby was at the pinnacle of his career. They were cool at that time but things got rough between them when Colby didn’t pay Jorge Masvidal’s coach Paulino Hernandez who was working with Colby before title fight. This was the major blow to their friendship and they started to take shots on each other and it went downhill from there. In ATT, everybody was confused and uncomfortable with this persona of Colby Covington, as he was talking trash about his teammates and colleague, fighters like Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Dustin Poirier publicly showed their frustration regarding Colby’s gimmick. This whole situation became the major issue for the gym; coaching staff and gym’s administration were stressing out about Colby and Jorge rivalry which was getting intense quickly by the coming day. Considering the critical situation in ATT, Gym’s owner Dan Lambert decided that nobody in the gym is allowed to trash talk against each other, but this didn’t stop Jorge and Colby to take shots on each other on social Media and things got serious between them. After this feud, Dan Lambert banned both Jorge and Colby from ATT and they were not allowed to train there anymore.
At that time, Colby had already fought for the unification of UFC welterweight Championship against Kamaru Usman that he lost via TKO stoppage in 5th round. While on the other hand, Jorge Masvidal became the global superstar when he knocked out Ben Askren with flying knee in just 5 sec into the fight and before that he knocked out Darren till in London. Jorge Stardom increases when he fought Nathan Diaz at UFC 244, where he beat Diaz via doctor stoppage and won the BMF title. But both Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington were banned from ATT, Colby Covington decided to change his camp and he went to MMA Masters while Jorge Masvidal came back to ATT after a lot of drama. They were on two different camps now and become the archenemy; their rivalry became one of the biggest storylines in UFC history.
UFC 272 is going to be big event, as they will meet in the octagon to end their rivalry, this fight is not just a business for them it’s very personal. Both guys are fighting to destroy each other, they have a lot of hatred and ill wishes toward each other. This fight is going to be war between two former friends and now bitter rival as it is the biggest grudge match in the history of UFC.
