- Colby Covington believes Alex Pereira could knock Jon Jones out
- “Chaos” is open to moving up to middleweight and take on Sean Strickland
Colby Covington is convinced Alex Pereira could finish Jon Jones and is interested in moving up to middleweight possibly facing Sean Strickland.
Colby backs Alex to KO Jones
Speaking to Submission Radio, “Chaos” revealed that he used to train with Pereira a couple years ago. Covington also believes that “Poatan” could match well with “Bones” and could knock the heavyweight champion out with a left hook.
“I’ve always respected and liked Alex man, I trained with him [Pereira]… Probably seven or eight years ago. He came in with Glover Teixeira and I was good friends with Glover… and he wanted me to help him [Pereira] with wrestling cuz he was this great Glory kickboxer like nasty future champ in kickboxing and he knew he was already going to get into MMA at that time when he was kickboxing but he just wanted to get more experience in the striking before he made his run in the MMA so you know I was helping him with wrestling for a little bit,” Covington said.
“Oh for sure! [Pereira] He could definitely catch him [Jones]. I mean, no doubt about it. Jon’s going to shoot for those legs. He’s not going to want to get cracked by Alex Pereira. That left hook and those kicks are lethal. So, I definitely think he can knock out Jon with a nice little left hook,” he added.
185 sounds interesting for Colby
Covington has already hinted at moving up to 185 in the past. As it turns out, he is still interested in the idea and would rather go big than be a “bully” at 155.
“I’m not a bully like, I got into MMA because I didn’t want people bullying me. So, I’m not going to go down and be a weight bully. I’m going to compete at my natural weight but honestly, 85 is intriguing. I think it would be kind of cool to go up there with the narrative like, ‘Oh, this guy’s a small 70. He’s going to go up to 85 and take on an even bigger challenge.’ So there is a possibility, I’m always looking for the biggest and best fights. So we’ll see,” Covington explained.
“I know those guys are a lot slower. That’s why guys that leave welterweight and they go to middleweight have so much success. Guys like Whittaker became champion, a guy like Sean Strickland became a champion. They leave welterweight where these guys are fast. They’ve got good cardio. These are the best athletes on the planet in this weight class. So they go up and they have so much success at middleweight because the middleweights are unathletic. They’re slow. So there is something to be said with that,” he added.
As for a potential opponent, “Chaos” thinks he and Strickland would be an entertaining fight.
“The Sean Strickland fights are always interesting,” Covington said. “He’s had his things to say about me in the past, I don’t think he’s anything special. He’s got a jab, he’s got a front kick. But besides that, you shut those those weapons down and he’s very limited. He’s a cardio fighter. He’s just a cardio kickboxer, essentially. So I don’t think I don’t see any threats out of Sean Strickland. It’s an entertaining fight that I might entertain in the future. We’ll see.”
Covington is coming off a brutal TKO loss to Joaquin Buckley at UFC Tampa. He vows to be stronger in his return but it’s yet to be known which weight class is he going to fight next.
Watch Covington’s full interview below:
