"You can't just come straight for the champ - who the f*** are you?" - Israel Adesanya on Colby Covington aiming for a middleweight title shot

Israel Adesanya recently responded to Colby Covington's claims of competing for the UFC middleweight strap in the near future. 'The Last Stylebender' dismissed his claim to the throne, stating that 'Chaos' needed to prove himself against other contenders in the division before calling for a title shot.

In a recent interaction with TMZ Sports, Israel Adesanya admitted that Covington was being overly ambitious by calling for a shot at the 185-lbs strap. He said:

"Yeah, I say just, you know, fight someone else. You can't just come straight for the champ. Who the f**k are you? Yeah, I'm like, 'Are you dumb?' Yeah, call someone else out. Call someone else out."

Check out Israel Adesanya's sit-down with TMZ Sports below:

During an interaction with Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole, Covington revealed that he was not averse to the idea of moving up a weight class and taking on Israel Adesanya.

However, his claims were laughed off by Dana White shortly thereafter. The UFC boss also called for Covington to compete against 185-lbs contenders before staking his claim to the middleweight throne.

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Kamaru Usman backs Colby Covington to beat Jorge Masvidal in the championship rounds

The UFC welterweight champion and former foe to both Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal, Kamaru Usman, recently offered his take on how the UFC 272 main event could play out.

While in conversation with ESPN MMA's Megan Olivi, Usman admitted that Masvidal would be more likely to suffer a loss as the fight progresses towards the championship rounds. Usman said:

"It don't look good for [Jorge Masvidal]. I'm just being honest. Just being honest. If it goes in the later rounds, that means [Colby] has somehow found a way to keep the fight going as long as he can. So I just don't think that favors Masvidal."

Check out Kamaru Usman's interaction with Megan Olivi below:

Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington are all set to settle their longstanding bad blood feud inside the Octagon in the main event of UFC 272 on March 5. The fight will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Los Vegas, Nevada.