LAS VEGAS – Colby Covington is blowing up the promotion for arguably the biggest fight of his MMA career, yet, it looks like he won’t be getting any pay-per-view points for his main event bout.
The former UFC welterweight title challenger takes on Jorge Masvidal in the headlining act of Saturday’s UFC 272. The event goes down at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Covington (16-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC) and Masvidal (35-15 MMA, 12-8 UFC) were former friends and teammates, but after a falling out due to an alleged unfulfilled payment from Covington’s part to Masvidal’s coach, the two turned bitter enemies. Their feud has become one of the biggest rivalries in combat sports today.
A big fight headlining a UFC pay-per-view event typically means a big payday, but Covington revealed he won’t be getting part of the cut on the pay-per-view sales.
“I forgoed the pay-per-view,” Covington told reporters at Wednesday’s media day. “I don’t care about the pay-per-view for this fight. This is a personal fight. I want to come and put on a show for the UFC and show that I’m deserving of being a lifetime UFC fighter.”
The grand majority of UFC pay-per-views are headlined by championship fights. Very few fights in the past have headlined a pay-per-view event without a title on the line. These rare exceptions include very limited fighters such as MMA stars Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz. Covington vs. Masvidal now joins that selected group that’s headlined a UFC pay-per-view while being a non-title bout.
Coming off a title fight loss to champion Kamaru Usman, Covington says he took a pay cut for this bout against Masvidal. “Chaos” is OK with the reduction in pay and not getting pay-per-view points due to the bad blood with Masvidal and his desire to step in the octagon with him.
“This is just a personal rivalry, this isn’t about the money,” Covington explained. “I didn’t come here to fight for money. I took a pay cut, I didn’t care about the money for this fight. This is about settling a blood rivalry.
“This has been a long time coming. This guy is holding it off as long as he could until he had no chance or no other opportunities. This is the biggest opportunity he could get to pay his alimony and to pay his child support, so of course, he had to come take his losing paycheck.
