After four years of trash talking, Jorge Masvidal & Colby Covington will finally have the opportunity to end their 'blood feud.
The ex-teammates of American Top Team will face off in a highly anticipated grudge match at UFC 272 Las Vegas.
Jorge Masvidal & Colby Covington will meet this weekend at UFC 272
After a heated buildup, the main bout will be the highlight of the MMA leader’s third pay-per view event in 2022.
However, there are two things that casual UFC fans want to know before fight night: Why does Jorge and Colby hate one another?
Did they ever get as close as the videos and pictures show? These questions are answered with an emphatic "Yes".
The former challengers to the welterweight title of two times lived together as well as team-mates at ATT.
Masvidal, a fan favourite, took Covington in and let him stay in his spare bedroom as he transitioned from wrestler into a fully-fledged mixed martial artist.
An act of kindness would be the foundation for a now-bromance that was once unbreakable.
Covington's postfight roar following his victory over Don Hyun Kim in 2017 epitomized the strong bond that the pair once had.
Covington said, "Us two against all the world, baby," as he hugged Masvidal. What's up?"
It was impossible to imagine that the couple, who had spent all their time together outside of the confines at ATT, would ever be able to part ways.
They did fall out 11 months later, after Covington received interim UFC gold.
As is often the case with friends who fall out, their public split was caused by money.
Masvidal became Covington's sworn enemy when he refused to pay Paulino Hernandez, the Miami mauler's trainer, for coaching him in his interim title fight against Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 225.
Masvidal stated: "I was already like. Let me start separating from this guy little-by-little, and then, Bam!
"Before he could even like fully (separate)," he betrayed me.
"I didn't pay him the money he agreed to and I knew that I was going to hurt him."
When Covington shocked fight fans by placing Masvidal, the man he had repeatedly called his best friend', in his crosshairs through digs in interviews as well as on social media there was no turning back.
Their relationship was so bad that ATT chief Dan Lambert had them schedule their training sessions to avoid any friction.
They almost came to blows, but not on the same occasion.
Both men were ejected from the gym after the incident, along with the violation of ATT rules not bash fellow teammates.
Lambert said to MMA Junkie, "It got toxic." It got to the point that it was affecting all aspects of the gym.
"We've seen a lot of fighters in this gym over 25 years, where there are people who love each other and those that don't.
"But we've always managed to keep that apart, maintain some professionalism in the gym, and not let it affect our team.
"Their situation got so bad that it was affecting everyone in the gym, and I couldn’t control it.
"At one time, we had both to tell them to leave."
Masvidal was not shocked when Covington turned on him after the infamous heel turn in Brazil, October 2017.
He stated that he would look for signs in his treatment of his family, his talk about his sister and his mom.
There are three sides to any story: theirs, yours and the truth. So I was thinking, "This guy's interesting."
"Tyron woodley brought him out.
He was paying him $1,000 per week. This was when he was an amateur and he wanted to train with him for four more weeks.
"Sponsors and food, then he just came home talking s*** about Woodley negatively."
Covington has no regrets about the way his relationship with Masvidal turned. He doesn't even plan to put the hatchet down after fight night.
SunSport asked Covington if he would be open to peace talks.
"Who would want to burrow the hatchet with an intruder, with a thief and with a dirtbag scumbag?"
"More people in his family like me than they like him." This dirtbag criminal is not going to be buried with me.
