Colby Covington will not be on the Machado Garry’s Christmas card list this year.

Garry will put his unbeaten record on the line this weekend in Las Vegas, when he takes on the also undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov in the UFC 310 co-main event from inside the T-Mobile Arena. The prize on offer is the top contender slot in the welterweight division and a ticket to take on the champion Belal Muhammad sometime next year.

But while Garry chases the title, in the background remains his long-standing grudge with the former three-time title challenger Colby Covington who, as fate has it, will replace Garry in his originally scheduled bout with rising contender Joaquin Buckley later this month — a fight which comes after Garry had repeatedly called for a bout with the American wrestler for much of the past year.

And speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show this week, as per MMA Junkie, Garry let loose on Covington, whom he sees as having repeatedly avoided accepting the Irishman’s challenges.

“I was seething,” Garry said of his rival.

“How do you think I feel? Because I’ve been screaming and shouting about fighting that man from the rafters. This man’s made videos about me, my wife, my kids — talking about all this sh*t. And here’s this man avoiding me like the plague, and then the second I book in against the scariest man in the division, he’s like, ‘Oh, I’ll fight in Florida.’

“It just proves, it just shows that he’s a coward, that he wants nothing to do with me. The truth is I already know I’ve beaten him. I know I’ve already mentally beaten him. He’s weak. He’s an absolute coward, and I believe he’s going to go out there and get absolutely steamrolled by Joaquin Buckley. I think Buckley starches him.”

But with new challenges ahead and, as he sees it at least, a world title bout on the horizon, Garry now says that the opportunity for the Covington grudge match has receded.

“I understand the type of person Colby Covington is,” Machado Garry said. “He is someone who is trying to stay relevant by calling out the people that are generating traction. Myself, Shavkat, Belal Muhammad — even Charles [Oliveira] at one point. He was saying he wanted to fight Charles. These are all to keep relevance to his name because his stock is plummeting so low because no one cares about him anymore.

“I want that fight because of how much trash he talked, but I’m well aware when I beat Shavkat on Saturday night, it’s me being booked against Belal Muhammad for the world title in 2025. I’m going to go out there and win that world title, and Colby Covington is far, far, far in the rear-view mirror.”