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Colby Covington is undoubtedly one of the most controversial UFC fighters out there, and his trash talking has caused plenty of friction with other members of the UFC’s roster.
Most notably, Colby Covington has been more than willing to cause unnecessary tension between himself and his now former teammates at American Top Team.
Colby Covington no longer fights under the American Top Team banner, which is hardly a surprise when you consider how he’s treated his former training partners. But ‘Chaos’ is evidently still more than willing to antagonize them both through interviews and via his social media.
With this in mind, here are five times that Colby Covington has unnecessarily antagonized a teammate from American Top Team.
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#5 Colby Covington vs. Dustin Poirier
We begin with one of Colby Covington’s favorite targets – his former training partner, UFC lightweight superstar Dustin Poirier.
The beef between the two men began back in 2020, not long after Covington was forced out of American Top Team.
In a bizarre rant, Covington labeled Poirier a “doofus” for apparently complaining about him to ATT head honcho Dan Lambert. Lambert would later stamp down on the trash talk between the teammates, which essentially led to Covington’s departure.
But despite fighting in a different weight class to Poirier, ‘Chaos’ evidently hasn’t forgotten about the beef between the two.
With Poirier preparing for arguably the biggest fight of his career this weekend against Conor McGregor at UFC 264, Colby Covington has now leaked footage of ‘The Diamond’ apparently knocking down an amateur fighter during a sparring session.
According to Covington, the clip demonstrates that Poirier is a “bad guy”, but already a number of his fellow UFC fighters have jumped in to defend him, stating that the footage shows regular sparring.
Poirier, for his part, has also claimed the sparring partner in the video is a professional fighter with 20 wins - not an amateur, as Covington claims.
Whether this rivalry is ever settled in the octagon remains to be seen – although Poirier has discussed a potential move to 170lbs in the future. However, it’s safe to say that Colby Covington clearly enjoys antagonizing his former teammate, even while ‘The Diamond’ prepares for a huge fight.
#4 Colby Covington vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Quite why Colby Covington would choose to get into a spat with a fighter that he’s literally never going to be able to face inside the octagon is anyone’s guess.
However, ‘Chaos’ seemed more than willing to start a feud with former UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk in 2020.
After apparently attempting to extend an olive branch to Dustin Poirier – something that clearly didn’t work given this week’s events – Covington then hit out at Jedrzejczyk in an interview. He labeled her “washed up” after she suggested he should apologize for his disrespectful behavior to fellow American Top Team fighters.
Taking things even further, he claimed the reason she wasn’t a fan of his was because he’d refused to date her, and then suggested she was “hooking up” with fellow ATT fighter Jorge Masvidal.
Jedrzejczyk – never afraid of trash talk herself – denied this, labeling Covington a “dirty guy” – but that wasn’t enough to stop ‘Chaos’ from continuing to run his mouth.
When asked for a response, Covington went on another wild rant, ending by saying that he wasn’t willing to waste his time on an “ugly boobie-woman from Poland or whatever”.
The whole spat was essentially needless given the fact that a fight between the two is categorically impossible. It stands as another example of Covington being willing to unnecessarily antagonize a former teammate.
#3 Colby Covington vs. Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva
In one of the stranger aspects of MMA, the name ‘American Top Team’ is somewhat misleading when it comes to describing the Florida-based camp.
That’s because while it does house some of the United States' best fighters – names like Robbie Lawler, Jorge Masvidal and formerly Colby Covington – it’s also home to great fighters from across the planet. Namely, ATT has always been known for its strong Brazilian contingent.
That’s why it was so mind-boggling to see Covington launch into a quasi-racist rant against Brazil following his 2017 win over Demian Maia in Sao Paulo. It was a vitriolic outburst that saw him label the country a “dump” and state that Brazilians were “filthy animals”.
The fact that the incident took place a whole three years before Covington departed American Top Team is even more mind-boggling, particularly as it was almost guaranteed to antagonize a number of Covington’s teammates.
Most notably, former UFC heavyweight title challenger Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva was incensed by his teammate’s attitude – stating that Colby Covington was “anti-professional” and that he should’ve been put in the hospital for his comments.
Whether any further friction between the two erupted during training sessions at ATT is unknown. It’s probably safe to say that ‘Bigoot’ would not have been impressed by Colby Covington’s apparent “apology” posted on his Twitter in the days that followed the rant.
#2 Colby Covington vs. Polyana Viana
Colby Covington might be more than willing to antagonize his teammates, male or female, but he arguably sank to his lowest when he decided to namedrop current UFC strawweight contender Polyana Viana into one of his customary rants in 2020.
After being accused of ducking a fight with Leon Edwards – UFC President Dana White claimed he’d literally hung up the phone when Covington rejected the bout – Covington once again went on the offensive.
This time, he claimed the UFC weren’t offering him enough money to take the fight, and claimed that he was too busy “on the couch, b*lls deep in Polyana Viana”.
‘Chaos’ then denied that he was Viana’s boyfriend, but claimed that they’d spent a couple of days together, during which time he’d “got to work on his bedroom cardio”.
Naturally, Viana was furious at the former interim UFC welterweight champion, stating that she’d never given room for any kind of comment or judgment about her personal life and labeling Covington “revolting”.
Again, why Covington chose to unnecessarily antagonize his teammate – especially as it did nothing to build to a fight – is a mystery.
#1 Colby Covington vs. Jorge Masvidal
Perhaps the greatest instance of Colby Covington attempting to antagonize a former teammate could be seen in his feud with former American Top Team training partner Jorge Masvidal.
The two were once not only training partners, but good friends too – with Covington supposedly sleeping on Masvidal’s couch for a time. But that all ended in 2019, when Masvidal began to angle for a UFC welterweight title shot, something Covington was also waiting for.
Covington hit out at Masvidal in interviews, claiming that ‘Gamebred’ was jealous of his quick rise through the UFC’s welterweight ranks, and described him as being “bitter”.
Masvidal unsurprisingly hit back at Covington on Twitter, and the burgeoning feud between the two forced American Top Team head honcho Dan Lambert to attempt to institute a “no trash talk” policy between teammates – unless they were signed to fight.
Naturally, that didn’t stop Covington – who labeled Masvidal a “p*ssy” and “the lowest scum of the earth”. The feud was of course enough to force Covington out of American Top Team altogether – and, with any luck, this will be one rivalry between former teammates that can be settled inside the octagon.
