Colby Covington says he threw his name in the hat to fight Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310.
Rakhmonov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) was scheduled to challenge welterweight champion Belal Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) in the Dec. 7 headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but Muhammad withdrew due to a bone infection in his foot.
Former multiple-time title challenger Covington (17-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) revealed that he offered to step in vs. Rakhmonov, but the UFC was working on something else.
“I offered. I told the UFC that I was willing to step up to the plate,” Covington told Submission Radio. “I would love to save the show and put on a good show for the fans. They pay their hard-earned money for big, megafights. They need a megafight. That’s not a mega fight. They need someone who is going to put asses in seats and entertain people, so I was excited. I wanted the fight, and I asked for it but I think they have other plans.”
Covington is confident he’d be a bad matchup for unbeaten Rakhmonov, who boasts a 100 percent finish rate.
“I can walk him down and pressure him, and he’s not going to like my pressure,” Covington said. “He doesn’t do very well with southpaws. We saw how he did with the busboy, Geoff Neal. That was a very competitive fight. He hasn’t fought a top, top contender yet. He’s fought some gatekeepers of the division, some guys on the cusp of the top 10, but he’s never fought a champion like me – a guy who’s going to come at him for five straight rounds and just walk him down.
“I match up well. He stands very tall. I don’t see anything special with him. He has some good submissions. He’s slick, but that’s when he can control the wrestling. He’s not going to control the wrestling on me, so I think I can beat him pretty easily, and I think it’s a favorable fight, and it’s a fight that I want in the future whether he wins or loses in December.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.
