Jorge Masvidal intervenes after Colby Covington releases Dustin Poirier’s video; The sparring partner responds

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Jorge Masvidal was among several fighters defending Dustin Poirier after Colby Covington released footage of his sparring session just four days before Poirier faced off at UFC 264 with Conor McGregor.

Covington, a former teammate of Poirier and Masvidal on the American Top Team, repeatedly joked that he had damning UFC lightweight shots and fired them on Tuesday, prompting a quick response from Masvidal.

According to Ariel Helwani, Masvidal is targeting a showdown with Covington or Nick Diaz for his next fight after his first UFC knockout loss in a rematch against champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 261. Masvidal and Covington used to be friends and roommates at the ATT by the public feud that It led to a ban on trash talk and Covington’s exit from the famous gym.

Covington said the shots were from Poirier’s training camp to face now former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 242. In the video, Poirier appears to have punched his training partner and then walks away shouting, “New!”

“Dustin is a total joke,” Covington said on What the Heck recently. “I have video footage to show what kind of person Dustin really is. Everyone is promoting him to be a charitable guy, a nice guy in front of the camera. Some side cams for a nice guy. Oh, he’s a family guy. He has a kid. Yeah, his son and wife are props. He’s a fake piece of sh*t The guy is a dirty bag.

“I have a video of him hitting an amateur in the gym partying and dancing and yelling at the guy. Dustin, who are you trying to impress? Dude, it’s a closed practice. You fire a guy who came to help you, and he’s an amateur. I fired this one. The kid, you have a concussion, you leave him meaningless, his head is trembling, you scream at him. What does that mean? Dude, you’re not the UFC world champion. You’re training for Khabib – that’s not Khabib. … You’re in closed training Hit a humble amateur man who came to help you in your training camp, and you’re going to rock that guy? And you yell at him, “And fresh,” and “Woo?” Dude, this guy isn’t what everyone says.”

Pourier, who faces McGregor on Saturday in a rubber bout at UFC 264, did not comment on the footage, and his management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After the footage was released, Titan FC vet Philip Douglas told MMA Fighting that he was the fighter in the video and indicated that Poirier had done nothing wrong.

“It was an intense fighting session,” he said, “and things like that can happen in sparring.” “There are some people saying I wasn’t wearing gear, but there was no reason to wear training gear, because Dustin trains well, he’s not mean. He hits hard like a fight and grabs me and knocks me to the ground. The trigger took me out of the cage and wouldn’t let me go back.

“In terms of his celebration, people say he was making fun – that’s the mentality of a guy fighting for a belt. I didn’t consider him disrespectful. I don’t, but that’s his mentality, imagine the fight. He was about to fight for the belt, that’s it his life.”

Covington was named the No. 1 contender for the UFC welterweight title by UFC President Dana White. Usman stopped him in the fifth round of their first meeting at UFC 245. The former interim champ repeatedly claimed he was still in the fight and accused referee Mark Goddard of favoring Usman.

Covington returned to the Octagon last September and took a major win over former champion and competitor Tyron Woodley. White has yet to provide a timetable for Usman’s match against Covington 2. Masvidal has welcomed the idea of ​​a showdown with Covington, but only on his terms.

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