Michael Bisping, former UFC welterweight champion, has some high praise for current welterweight Colby “Chaos” Covington. Bisping offered a trash-talking heel persona than Covington during his career, albeit one that never provided the foaming-at-the-mouth rage Colby Covington offers to the cameras, Bisping has to respect Colby’s salesmanship.
Bisping told The MMA Hour that Colby Covington is doing a great job selling his fights. “I think he does a great job.
I think he really sells it. I think he gets people very, very much interested. He is a heel. I did an interview with him last week for BT Sport and it was a very compelling interview, very honest and open of him.
Bisping Praises Colby Covington’s “Fantastic Job”
The reality is, Colby’s an incredible fighter, he really is. He’s just unlucky in some ways that Kamaru Usman is the champion and he’s around at the moment. If it wasn’t for that, he’d probably be the champ.
I think he brings a lot of excitement. That fight against Usman at Madison Square Garden, I loved every second of that press conference and that was because of Colby, because of what he brought to the table.
It’s the same thing with Jorge, same thing every single time, and if I was a fan, I’d have bought that pay-per-view after watching that. So he’s doing what he’s setting out to do. He’s promoting the fight, he’s hyping the fight, he’s trying to put a little doubt in his opponent’s mind, not sure if he’s successful in that because I think a lot of people now know he’s just playing this character, but promoting his fight, 100 percent he does a fantastic job.”
Bisping, these days, typically mans the commentary booth for UFC Vegas events, although he recently made his pay-per-view debut at UFC 271. Colby Covington remains active as a welterweight, recently dispatching longtime rival and former “best friend” Jorge Masvidal via a dominant unanimous decision.
Colby’s next move is unclear, given his stunning record against fellow welterweights. He recently called out Dustin Poirier, a lightweight, and yet another former teammate. Whether Poirier, who, like Colby, lost a title charge recently, would be willing to move up to 170 pounds to fight Colby Covington remains to be seen.
If Colby can stand his ground against the crop of welterweights coming for Kamaru Usman, including Vicente Luque, Khamzat Chimaev, and Leon Edwards, he may well get his chance at a third title fight.
Do you think Colby Covington is great at selling fights? Let us know in the comments.
