Dana White insists Leon Edwards will defend his title against Colby Covington next.
‘Rocky’ impressively beat Kamaru Usman over five rounds at UFC 286 in his first welterweight defence and UFC president White is now planning to match him with Covington.
‘Chaos’ weighed in as the main event back-up fighter ahead of the first UK UFC pay-per-view show since Michael Bisping faced Dan Henderson in Manchester seven years ago.
The controversial American had a front-row seat to watch Edwards outpoint the man he’s lost twice against before White named him as the next 170lb title challenger during his post-fight press conference.
Edwards immediately voiced his dislike of the match-up and expressed his opinion that Covington doesn’t deserve a title shot because he hasn’t fought since beating Jorge Masvidal at UFC 272 over a year ago.
Edwards later claimed that he will refuse to sign a contract to fight the former interim welterweight champion but White is not prepared to negotiate on the matter.
He said at UFC San Antonio: “Colby Covington deserves this shot at the title.
“I don’t blame Leon. Leon just got through Usman twice and now he’s looking at another wrestler now with a funky style that’s tough to deal with
“When you become the champ, everybody’s coming after you.
“All the straight killers are coming after you for the next three times a f***ing year, you’re faced with nothing but the baddest dudes in the world in your division.”
“If you look at Usman and what he did, Usman ran through that division twice. Usman’s one of the greatest of all time. Leon just beat him twice. You’re the man, Leon. You’re the guy. And everyone’s coming after you, and it’s going to be Colby next.”
The UFC boss doesn’t understand the uproar surrounding Covington getting his third shot at the undisputed welterweight title.
White added: “If Usman doesn’t exist Colby’s been the champ now for a while.
“He’s been there forever. He cut the weight. He showed up to fill in for that fight and a million other reasons why he deserves that fight.”
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