Daniel Cormier: Colby Covington needs to recognize the situation he's in

Daniel Cormier doesn’t think Colby Covington is in a position to be picky in terms of his next fight.

Covington and Ian Machado Garry were angling to fight each other, but Covington insists he never got an official fight offer from the UFC. Covington said the ship has sailed on Garry, and called out Belal Muhammad, accusing him of sitting on his ranking.

Thursday, however, UFC CEO Dana White announced Muhammad is set for a UFC 304 welterweight title challenge against champion Leon Edwards on July 27 in Manchester, England.

Covington, a multi-time title challenger, looked lackluster in his title-fight loss to Edwards at UFC 296 after he broke his foot early. Cormier says Covington (17-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) now needs to take a step back.

“Colby Covington said that he feels like Belal Muhammad is sitting on his ranking and doesn’t deserve a title fight,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “I love Colby. I think Colby’s cool. I think he’s a good dude. I think he’s fine. But come on, Colby. Come on, brother. Colby can’t say or try to determine who gets a title fight right now because of the way he lost to Leon Edwards and the way he fought. It seems like he’s unwilling to fight Ian Garry.

“I think he should maybe step back and just not really say much at all until another fight comes his way. I don’t know what the hesitance is to fighting Ian Garry for Colby Covington. I don’t know if he just doesn’t want to fight back in the rankings. But I think he needs to recognize that in this situation, that’s kind of what he’s going to get right now because of the way that he lost that last fight. He didn’t fight well.”

Former interim champion Covington has split his past six octagon appearances with title losses to Kamaru Usman twice and, most recently, Edwards.