Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
UFC Welterweight Champion Leon Edwards is coming off of a decision victory over former UFC Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman in the main event of UFC 286.
Former UFC Interim Welterweight Champion Colby Covington is next for Edwards according to UFC President Dana White, but Edwards says that Covington isn't getting a title shot anytime soon, while also saying that "Dana White Privilege" is real.
“I definitely have a say,” Edwards said on The MMA Hour (transcript via Alexander K. Lee of MMA Fighting). “Listen, he ain’t getting a title shot next fight. Look at the road I had to take to get there. There’s no way you’re getting beat twice by the guy that I just beat twice, went out and beat Masvidal, and then sit out for a year and a half, not even tweeting or nothing, just go missing for a year and then randomly pops up at the weigh-ins and it’s like, ‘OK, he’s fighting for the title next.’ It makes no sense at all, so let’s see how it plays out. He has to go out there and earn his way like I had to do.
“Khamzat [Chimaev] and me were calling each other out for years. This is a guy that I got matched up with three times in a row. I took the [Chimaev] fight and [Covington] didn’t take the fight and he’s getting rewarded for not taking the fight. When it was me, I got removed from the rankings. So ‘Dana White privilege’ is definitely real.”
Covington has competed in three title fights thus far under the UFC banner, holding a 1-2-0 record in those encounters.
Edwards also says that it doesn't make sense for Covington to get a shot at the welterweight championship.
“It makes no sense,” Edwards said. “[Covington] ain’t done much. He’s coming off of a loss then he beats Masvidal. Sat out for, like, a year and a half, went to court, I still don’t get the case for him to fight for a title, they’re trying to make it, it doesn’t make sense to me at all.”
