Rafael dos Anjos rips Colby Covington: “he’s just a worse version of Conor McGregor”

Colby Covington, who battles Rafael dos Anjos for the interim welterweight title at UFC 225 this June 9, is perhaps the most polarizing fighter in mixed martial arts today. The American welterweight has unleashed a stream of incendiary trash talk over the last few months, but apparently, it’s not bothering his opponent dos Anjos.

“I grew up in Brazil in the favelas, man. Bullies, trash talking, doesn’t work with me,” dos Anjos said during the UFC 225 media conference call on Thursday (transcribed by MMA Fighting). “But I think Colby, he’s just trying [to be Conor McGregor]. Conor does it well. Conor, he’s a rich man, he makes a lot of money.”

“He’s a businessman, and I can respect that. But Colby, he’s just a worse version of Conor McGregor. He’s trying to be like Conor, but when he loses to me, his career is done. All he has is talk, nothing else.”

“This guy’s so fake. When he’s on the phone, he grows his balls. But on fight night, his balls shrink. I’m going to expose him.”

While dos Anjos is not the first person to compare Covington to McGregor, Covington feels there’s simply no comparison between himself and the Irishman. 

“People, they wanna say I’m mimicking McGregor, I’m mimicking Chael Sonnen,” Covington said on a recent episode of BJPENN.COM Radio. “I’m not trying to be anything like them. Does it look like I’m trying to get followers or I’m trying to get fans? I don’t care. I’m not trying to make people happy. I don’t care. You’re gonna be mad, but you will tune in to see me fight ’cause you wanna see me lose. At the end of the day, all these people that wanna say I’m trying to mimic another person, no. I’m unique in my own way. No one’s ever done and went the route I’ve went, full super villain.”

What do you think of Rafael dos Anjos’s comments on Colby Covington?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/1/2018.