One of the bigger potential grudge matches in the UFC would be Colby Covington (15-2) and Tyron Woodley (19-5-1). Per ESPN‘s Ariel Hewlani, the UFC was trying to book the fight for August which was confirmed by a Covington Instagram post.
Will the UFC make it happen?
As you can see from the post above, Covington and Woodley were offered to headline a UFC fight night on August 22nd.
Covington stated that Woodley was the one who would not agree to that date which was later confirmed by Woodley himself. T-Wood clarified his stance with Ariel Helwani.
“”My answer to whether I would fight Colby is eternally yes. . . At 96 years old in a nursing home it’s yes! He said no six times and now creates a date that works for him? F— out of here,” Woodley said in a text to Helwani.
Both men have a lot of heat between the two of them and both men are former UFC champions. Woodley is coming off back to back losses while Covington is coming off of the loss to Kamaru Usman.
I’m a little surprised that the UFC is going with Covington/Woodley as opposed to having Jorge Masvidal fight Covington. That fight to me makes more sense than this one.
Woodley has looked like a shell of himself in his last two fights, and I don’t see him fairing well against Covington. I think Covington’s pace and pressure would be way too much for Woodley to handle at this stage.
Looks like the UFC will try again to book this fight in September or October. It will definitely be a main event whenever it does/if it does get booked.