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UFC welterweight Colby Covington’s grudge against champ Tyron Woodley continues to simmer as he approaches a critical bout against recent title challenger Demian Maia.

Covington (12-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) finds a reason to jab at all of his opponents – even the ones who don’t anger him. Maia (25-7 MMA, 19-7 UFC), he predicts, will be “looking for a new job, maybe at a cell phone kiosk in the mall” after getting retired in his hometown Oct. 28 at UFC Fight Night 119 at Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo.

Bold, but not angry.

For Woodley, on the other hand, Covington does not hold back. On Tuesday during an interview with MMAjunkie Radio, he went out of his way to mispronounce Woodley’s first name and fire off another rant of personal attacks.

“The crown’s too heavy for him, honestly,” Covington said of Woodley. “He can go back to his passion – standing around in the background of his B-list movies. He’s the type of dude that’s going out to movie sets and taking pictures. ‘Oh, let me get a picture with you, Snoop (Dogg),’ just so he can say, ‘He’s my friend’ on social media. The guy’s a joke. He’s a fake. He’s a fraud. He doesn’t even get credited in his movies. That’s how pathetic he is. Unless it’s some gas station ‘Kickboxer: Vengeance’ movie, then maybe he gets credit from that.

“He’s telling everybody, ‘He wouldn’t look at me in the gym.’ Yeah, I wouldn’t look at you because I promised my manager and owner of (American Top Team) Dan Lambert that I would keep it professional, and I wouldn’t say nothing. I didn’t want to have any problems. He has a fight coming up. I keep it classy always. But at the end of the day, he’s saying fake stuff.

“He’s on (The MMA Hour) saying, ‘Colby Covington won’t get a word out of my mouth,’ and the next thing he’s saying is, ‘Colby wouldn’t even look at me in the gym. He’s shadowboxing under my championship belt.’ What the (expletive) are you talking about? First of all, your picture’s over the bags where we work out, and second, I had to make a promise to Dan Lambert. He wouldn’t even give me (the Maia) fight unless I kept it cool with Tyron. I made some promises, but at the end of the day, (expletive) Tyron Woodley’s a fake, a fraud, and I’m going to expose him real soon.”

Woodley (18-3-1 MMA, 8-2-1 UFC) did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The champ is aiming to fight the winner of an upcoming middleweight title bout between champ Michael Bisping (30-7 MMA, 20-7 UFC) and ex-welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre (25-2 MMA, 19-2 UFC), which takes place in November at UFC 217. Woodley recently dispatched the long-nagging contender Maia, though his effort made no new fans, including UFC President Dana White.

Of course, Covington sided with his promoter on that one.

When it comes to another UFC contractee, however, Covington takes another side. He blasted Snoop Dogg after the rapper and UFC commentator issued an expletive-laden rant at Conor McGregor after the UFC lightweight champ’s boxing loss to Floyd Mayweather this past weekend.

“The UFC is employing him,” Covington said of Snoop. “It’s not cheap to fly him out to those summits. He’s getting a way bigger purse than I am to show up.

“I think it’s a joke how he’s going to trash on the UFC and fighters. Like, dude, you’ve never even fought. You’re a skinny little twig. How are you going to act hard and act like you’re tough? It was a boxing match. Yeah, congrats to Floyd. Conor did it as a money fight, but if it were in the streets or in the octagon, it wouldn’t have even been competitive. Conor would have killed Floyd. Don’t act all hard and say ill will toward the UFC, who employs you.”

So there’s another grudge to put on the ever-growing list. But first, Covington needs to put away Maia.

For more on UFC Fight Night 119, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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