Colby Covington will get his title shot… Dana White says it just won’t be when he wants

Since Tyron Woodley defended his UFC welterweight crown against Demian Maia in July 2017, there has seemingly been nothing but confusion clouding the top of the division.

Roughly a year after the defense, Woodley was ready to return from his shoulder surgery yet the UFC made an interim welterweight title bout between Colby Covington and former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos.

Covington would go on to win the bout via clear unanimous decision thus presumably setting him up for his well earned undisputed title shot vs Woodley.

However, that has yet to come for the ATT product in Covington as he needed an extra month to recover before he could return at the UFC’s desired date for the matchup which led to the UFC throwing Darren Till into his spot to take on Woodley.

Having yet to fight since the Dos Anjos fight, Covington remains shelved as fellow top contender Kamaru Usman has now taken his spot vs Woodley at UFC 235 in March.

Openly unhappy with his treatment as of late, Covington has stood firm on his stance saying that he won’t fight for anything less than his promised title shot and if he doesn’t get it, he wants to be released.

Even throwing some jabs at UFC President Dana White in the midst of it all, the UFC boss addressed the situation today.

“I haven’t heard one thing about Colby Covington,” White said at the UFC Brooklyn pre-fight press conference. “When opportunities pop up, take ’em. When opportunity knocks, answer the door. Period, end of story.

“You can ask anybody who’s been on this stage for a long time, when we call, if you take the fight, you take the fight. And if you don’t, other people will. That’s how this thing goes. It keeps rolling. When we call and we make an offer, you take it. He didn’t.

“He’ll get another shot,” White continued. “It’s just not going to be when he wanted and when he thought it was coming. Usman went in there and fought that fight [vs Rafael dos Anjos]. I said that night, I wasn’t shy about it, ‘Usman looked good tonight. I’d actually like to see Usman versus Woodley,’ and we got it done.”

With Woodley vs Usman set to collide in March, it could very well be a full year before we see Covington in action again assuming he ends up getting the winner.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/17/2019