Colby Covington returned from the shadows this past Friday when it was revealed he was the backup fighter in case anything happened to Usman or Edwards before their championship bout. Colby being the backup is one thing, but after the fight, at the press conference, Dana White made it really clear Colby is next. It's really weird because Dana went against his rule of immediately "booking" a fight. Colby has Dana White Privilege, and probably a Dana White Privilege+ account. I've never seen Dana this giddy over a fighter who hasn't fought in a year at the press conference. He literally said "it doesn't matter Colby is next" when asked about Masvidal vs Burns next month at UFC 287. If you know anything about the UFC in the past few years, you would know about the famous altercation between Leon Edwards and Jorge Masvidal. Jorge was being interviewed and he saw Leon walk by and said something, next thing you know they were fighting and it quickly got broken up. They were scheduled to fight once in 2021, unfortunately, the fight never panned out. This is a fight people want to see, the story is already there, plus this is the fight the champion wants. Granted, Masvidal is currently on a bit of a losing streak. However, he is still the eleventh-ranked Welterweight and he's fighting the fifth-ranked Welterweight, Gilbert Burns. If he beats Burns that should be enough to propel him to the title fight. Even Belal Muhammad who is the most deserving of the shot, based on his body of work, would understand if Masvidal skipped him after a win over Gilbert Burns considering his history with the champion.
Today, Belal was a guest on Jon Anik's podcast with Kenny Florian. Belal not only spoke of how he would understand if Masvidal won if he jumped the line, but he talked about how he was in talks to fight Colby for the last four weeks thinking that was his next fight. That is ridiculous for Colby to now be the number one contender if Belal was supposed to fight him. Why wouldn't they just book that now? Instead, Dana said Belal is going to fight Shavkat Rakhmonov and Colby is next in line for the title. Leon announced he won't sign the contract if Colby's name is on it thankfully for Belal. Jon Anik also told Belal that Leon has been talking about active fighters deserving the shot and even if publicly he won't mention Belal he has to be talking about Belal because no one in the division has been more active. Leon actually mentioned Belal at the UFC 286 press conference. Anik must've missed that. Belal is 6-0 since 2020. He's on a 9-fight win streak with a no-contest with the champion in between that streak. He also has some story with Leon. Belal believed that he vs Colby would be on this past card so they'd have two backups for the main event, but Colby kept backing out. As far as his next opponent is concerned, Belal would like to fight Kamaru Usman, not Shavkat Rakhmonov. Belal feels his next fight should be with someone ranked above him, Rakhmonov is sixth. Belal has been the guy in the division who'll literally fight anyone. The fans are finally starting to notice that as well. Yet, Belal says he'd wait for a Usman fight because his goal is to be the world champion, and fighting a guy ranked beneath him won't propel him there even though he'd be on a 10-fight win streak. I don't blame Belal for that at all. He also is more than willing to fight Covington, but clearly, Covington who's 2-2 in his last four is unwilling to step in the cage with Belal.
Jon Anik, Ariel Helwani, and I are not the only ones who are confused in the MMA world. Yes, that's right Helwani also believes Belal is deserving of the title because he is able to put bias aside when it comes to deserving contenders.
Belal and Helwani have some odd beef that I'm not educated enough on to discuss, but the fact that Helwani agrees based on his body of work Belal should be next in line really speak volumes. There were plenty of watch parties streaming on youtube for UFC 286. Due to my Covington confusion, I wanted to see if the rest of the MMA world was in on Colby or confused with the push like myself. The UFC Fight Pass watch party included former UFC Champion Forrest Griffin and current Welterweight Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson. They were confused about why Colby would get the shot. Conner Burks from the MMA Hour has a watch party with Eric Jackman and Mike Heck. Burks and Jackman were baffled as well. Mike Heck seems like a hardcore Colby fan, so it was tough to get a real read from him. If the MMA world is confused, if Leon won't sign the contract, then Dana White needs to re-evaluate his idea of Colby Covington entering the title picture. I have never seen the UFC grant a fighter a title opportunity after losing two title fights in his last four fights. It is such an insane concept.
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