EXCLUSIVE | Colby Covington says he’ll knock Robert Whittaker out if Yoel Romero doesn’t

On June 9, in the co-main event of UFC 225, Colby Covington will challenge Rafael dos Anjos for the interim welterweight title. Shortly thereafter, in the main event of the same card, UFC middleweight champ Robert Whittaker will attempt to defend his title in a rematch with fearsome contender Yoel Romero.

In the past, Covington has mentioned that he’d someday like to move up to middleweight and challenge for the divisional title. While he is not interested in fighting his American Top Team teammate Yoel Romero, he maintains that he’s still interested in moving up to middleweight to battle Whittaker in the future.

“I think it’s a great match up,” Covington said of the UFC 225 main event on the latest episode of BJPENN.COM Radio. “I think Yoel has all the tools to put Whittaker away. He won those first two rounds in the first fight, so it’s going to be a very competitive fight and I don’t know what to expect. What will we see from Whittaker coming back from injury? He may not be the same from his injuries. Yoel looked on fire, he just knocked out Rockhold. I’ll definitely have my eyes on that. I’m not going to go up and challenge Romero ’cause he’s my teammate and I like the guy, but if Whittaker wins I’ll definitely be looking to go up and knock him out just like Choir Boy (Stephen Thompson) did.”

This is not the first time Covington has taken a shot at Whittaker. In fact, the UFC 225 interim welterweight title challenger has also targeted UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov in the past.

“I’m looking for three belts,” Covington said on a recent episode of BJPENN.COM Radio. “I’m looking to do something that’s never been done in this sport. I wanna go down to 155. I wanna go up to 185 middleweight and take the belt. Whitaker hasn’t been that impressive. He got knocked out by choir boy Thompson. Karate, everybody knows that shit don’t work. As far as Khabib, the guy couldn’t finish a real estate on 20 hours notice. That’s sad, man. If that dweeb ever comes up to 170, I’ll rag doll him like the chump he is.”