Colby Covington thinks a potential clash against Conor McGregor would be the biggest fight in UFC history.
The possibility of Covington vs McGregor is now bolstered as the Irishman announced his comeback fight against Michael Chandler later this year will take place at welterweight, the division that Covington has competed in for his entire UFC career. Covington welcomed a fight against McGregor but thinks the former two-weight champion doesn't have the same desire to compete.
"Conor's done some great things in this sport. He's a great fighter but his time is passing. He's made a lot of money so he just doesn't have that same hunger. Who knows if he's coming back anytime soon?
"He still has to get the USADA pool. If Conor wants to fight one day, it's probably the biggest event the UFC would ever do, as you see with the numbers I've drawn to this event. If they want to sit down and they think that's the biggest and best fight they can do, let's do it."
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The highest-selling event in UFC history came in October 2018 when McGregor was tapped out by bitter rival Khabib Nurmagomedov. The card sold a massive 2.4million pay-per-view buys, around 600,000 more than the second-highest selling event which was headlined by McGregor and Dustin Poirier's trilogy fight in July 2021.
A fight between Covington and McGregor won't be taking place anytime soon as UFC boss Dana White confirmed that Covington will be next in line for Leon Edwards' welterweight title following his UFC 286 win against Kamaru Usman in London. McGregor's fight against Chandler is expected to take place in the third or fourth quarter of this year, but the Irishman has insisted he could still fight twice in 2023.
"I can see it moving pretty fast when it moves," McGregor said of his return on The MMA Hour. "We’re gearing up and there’s a lot going on behind the scenes and all, but I feel it will move fast. There’s no issue why it shouldn’t move fast.
"So I assume late summer [for Chandler], maybe a little bit later depending. I would like that, and then of course, that’s still half the year left.
“I wish for consistency. I’m working for consistency. Like I said before, I’ve had this on-off thing for a couple of years and it’s been frustrating, but be it for different reasons.
"But I’d like to just get past that and just get into this consistency bracket. I feel I will, I feel I can and I’m excited for it.”