Colby Covington has lashed out at recently-retired star Khabib Nurmagomedov – calling him a p***y for not fighting in the welterweight category.
The 32-year-old competed at lightweight level throughout his UFC career, although did fight several times in the welterweight division before joining the promotion back in 2012.
It was reported that, following the weigh-in before his final fight against Justin Gaethje last week, Khabib lost an incredible 19 pounds in six days to make the 155lb required weight.
The Russian was also forced to take a heavy weight cut when fighting Conor McGregor back in 2018, which he won in the fourth round.
But Covington has claimed that cutting such amounts of weight has given him an unfair advantage in the lightweight category, and says that he himself is the main reason why Khabib never made the step up to a higher weight division.
Speaking to Submission Radio, Covington said: “There was a great American legend hero that said in college, ‘p*****s cut weight’.
“And I’m not talking about Dan Gable, who I was around in college, the guy’s a legend, I’m talking about yours truly. I’m saying, if you have to cut weight, you’re a p****.
“Why are you looking for this big advantage to have a weight advantage over these little guys and beat midgets? Come fight in a real man’s weight class.
“I think I’m the man and I’m the reason he doesn’t come up to 170 in the first place. There’s a reason Khabib cuts that weight. He cuts tonnes of weight.
“Everybody knows he walks around at like 190. He’s bigger than me. But I’m a real man; I fight in my weight class. I’ll fight a man any size. Khabib’s looking for a way, he wants to beat up little midgets.”
Covington is currently ranked #1 in the UFC welterweight rankings, having most recently defeated Tyron Woodley in September.
He was the defending UFC Welterweight champion as of December 2019, before losing to Kamaru Usman in the fifth round at UFC 245 in Las Vegas.
And the 32-year-old claimed that Khabib would not want to step into the Octagon with him.
He said: “You’re not going to fight in a real man’s weight class like 170 or welterweight, because you know I’m the man.
“You know who’s here, you know you have no chance to keep that undefeated record. So, there’s a reason he’s looking to cut a bunch of weight and there’s a reason I’ll fight any man alive.”