Welterviktaren Colby Covington är beredd på att bli känd inom sporten, förhoppningsvis som mer än Jon Jones gamla rumskamrat.
“Me and Jon were in a bunk bed, I made him take the top bunk, and I took the bottom bunk. Joe was in the other room, and we would have some crazy pillow fights.”, berättar Covington om boendet.
Det var på Iowa Central Community College som de två möttes och bodde i en tvårumslägenhet med en annan nyligen signerad UFC-fighter, Joe Soto (15-2). Tillsammans satt dom och drömde om en MMA-karriär, vilket otroligt nog – alla lyckats med.
“After wrestling practice would be over, we would stick in after practice, and we would just roll jiu-jitsu because Joe was a brown belt at the time. He would show us stuff, and we had this guy that was a kickboxing guy that would show us all this crazy stuff. He was always doing Superman punches and spinning backfists and all these crazy techniques. We all kind of knew that we wanted to go to MMA when we got done with college.”
Om att ha sett Jon Jones (20-1) lyckas på den nivå han har kommenterade Covington detta till mmajunkie.com;
“It’s been cool, to see someone I was close with for the time that we were together accomplishing those things is very motivating for me. It puts in perspective that I can do the same thing.”
“We used to train a lot together, and I know I’m capable of accomplishing all those same things that he has done. I just have to put in the hard work, and work to have one of the things that he has that a lot of people don’t have, and that’s the mental aspect. That’s what’s gotten him where he is. Seeing him have that success just gives me a lot of motivation that I can have that same success.”
Covington gjorde sin proffsdebut 2012 och skaffade sig ett matchfacit på 3-0 bara fyra månader in i proffskarriären. Men efter det gick det trögare, med bara en match i 2013 och en än så länge 2014. Men på lördag får Covington (5-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) chansen att lägga på en till fight då han möter Anying Wang (2-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) som deltog i Kinas första säsong av The Ultimate Fighter, på underkortet av UFC Fight Night 48: Bisping vs. Le.
Bild från Colby Covingtons facebook.
