Former UFC Interim Welterweight Champion Colby Covington left American Top Team (ATT) earlier this week, ending a relationship that began with the team in 2001.
The fighter admits that the major reason behind departing the team was that ATT became too drama filled.
“It just became too drama-filled and too negative energy-filled,” Covington told MMA Junkie. “Every time I was walking in for training camps, I could feel the jealousy. I could feel the hate and that type of negative energy. It wears you down and you can’t truly be at your best when you’re dealing with that day in and day out. This is more me having respect for Dan Lambert. I don’t want to keep putting him in this drama-filled situation where he has to deal with fighters coming to him every day crying to him. I’m not crying to him. I have no feelings. I’m a fighter. You want to say some words? Let’s fight. Let’s get in the cage and get locked up and fight and we can settle our differences. But I’m not a crybaby – little complaints department where I’m going to Dan Lambert, ‘Oh, Dan, please kick Colby out of the team. Protect our precious little feelings.’ So I feel like this is the best step for me just to not even make him make that decision and just go on my own way.”
Dan Lambert, who is the owner and founder of ATT, did institute a no trash talking policy after things became too heated between Covington and his teammates.
Covington even points to Jorge Masvidal, Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Dustin Poirier as some of the culprits behind his exit from ATT.
“Joanna Jedrzejczyk, ‘Doofus’ Dustin Poirier and ‘Street Judas’ (Jorge) Masvidal – they’re crying to (Lambert) like babies every day, creating conflict in the gym in the middle of pro fighters’ training sessions, yelling at me, screaming, oh this and that, ‘Get in the way, coaches,’ just because they’re looking for attention, just because they want people to know who they are, but not really going to do it. If they wanted to do something, they would have came up to me and did something. But they don’t want to do something. They just want to cry about it. They don’t want to fight me. If they wanted to fight me, then they’ve got no excuse now because I’m ‘Colby Covington Inc.,’ so you can direct your complaints and feelings to me," says Covington.
It did not take long for Covington to form a stable of his own, as the fighter announced the formation of Colby Covington Incorporated after leaving ATT.
