Colby Covington considers Paddy Pimblett the perfect opponent for him to fight at the White House.
A huge advocate for President Donald Trump, Covington (17-5 MMA, 12-5 UFC) feels like he’s a shoe-in for the projected UFC White House event next June.
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He’s open to the likes of fellow welterweight veterans Stephen Thompson and Gilbert Burns but wants to settle his beef with Pimblett (23-4 MMA, 7-1 UFC) after a backstage altercation at UFC 314. The former interim champion was rather critical of Pimblett’s title loss to Justin Gaethje at UFC 324 last Saturday.
“I thought that Justin Gaethje looked really bad, but Paddy looked even worse,” Covington told talkSPORT. “Justin looked like a really old, slow, punch-drunk dude. I call him the ‘King of CTE’ because he’s been hit in the head a lot, so he’s got that CTE, and he just looked bad. But Paddy looked worse. He didn’t look very good. He looked sluggish, he didn’t look very fast, hands down a lot. Just very amateur, rookie mistakes that he made, but he’s never been in a main event spotlight.
“So, this is his first time getting the main event spotlight and all that it requires. It’s a lot – the media week, the weight cutting, the media work you have to do leading up to the fight. You have to handle big loads, so I think he realized it’s a lot tougher out there than he thought it was. He was talking a big game saying he was going to be champion, but he’s never been in that spotlight. He got that spotlight, and he didn’t pass the test. He froze under the pressure.”
More: Sean Shelby’s Shoes: What’s next for Paddy Pimblett after UFC 324 loss?
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Covington argues that, despite Pimblett being a lightweight for most of his career, competing at welterweight would make sense.
“He’s a big guy. He cuts a lot of weight,” Covington said. “He may not want to keep going to 155. What’s the sense in Paddy going back to 155? There’s no big fights for him now that he lost to Gaethje. He’s a big guy, he probably weighs more than me at walk-around weight anyway. I want to present that idea to the UFC: ‘Hey, me and Paddy, a British guy and a USA guy, on the White House lawn would be amazing.’
“I think that would be awesome. I don’t want to fight an American because it doesn’t make sense to fight an American in the American capital on the 250th birthday of America. Paddy Pimblett makes sense. He’s got a bowl cut, he’s got an accent. I think the fight would get the fans excited, and there’s definitely some turmoil between us. He doesn’t like me, I don’t like him so let’s get locked in the cage and handle our differences.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Colby Covington wants ‘amateur’ Paddy Pimblett on UFC White House card
