Colby Covington says if you believe in ring rust you are ‘mentally weak’ ahead of return at UFC 268

Colby Covington doesn’t want to hear any talk of ring rust and how that might impact him.

Covington is set to return in the main event of UFC 268 in Madison Square Garden against Kamaru Usman. The two will finally have their highly-anticipated rematch and it will be the first time in 14 months that Covington fought and the rematch will happen with a new team behind “Chaos” which he says was needed.

“The first thing I needed to change, the biggest thing, was the people are me, the team around me,” Covington said at media day (via MMAJunkie). “Now, Daniel Valverde, my judo, my jiu-jitsu coach, my striking coach Cesar Carneiro, and my strength-and-conditioning coach Jonathan Lopez, my other coach Charlie Weis.

“I just have a newfound energy around me, people who genuinely care about me and they want to see me win. They’re not just showing up to get paychecks and just work to throw me out there into the fire,” Covington continued. “They actually have been developing my skills and we’ve been growing as a fighter every single day. You’re going to see new wrinkles in my game. We’ve updated the software. I’m going to control-alt-delete Marty on Saturday night.”

Although Colby Covington has been in the gym training, many people have wondered how he will look due to the time off. Yet, Chaos doesn’t think ring rust is real and plans to prove that on Saturday night.

“I work hard every single day in silence and I let success make noise,” Covington said. “People who believe in ring rust are the people who are mentally weak. If you believe there’s ring rust, then it’s probably going to happen. I don’t believe in that. I’ve been making so many strides with my new gym, with my new coaches, Daniel, Cesar, Jonathan, Charlie. We’ve developed a new game plan, a new strategy and we’re going to show you guys Saturday night. I can’t tell you. I am the king of spoilers, but I can’t give you any secrets.”

Do you think Colby Covington will beat Kamaru Usman?