Colby Covington says Jorge Masvidal’s portrayal of the end of their friendship is completely wrong.

Masvidal has alleged that Covington failed to pay their mutual coach an agreed fee Covington’s interim title fight with Rafael Dos Anjos back in June of last year, and that’s what caused their relationship to fracture and eventually crumble.

Now, the pair are at the top of the welterweight division and could well be on a collision course. If they do end up being scheduled to compete, it’s likely the issue at the crux of their falling out will have more attention to it. In Covington’s mind, Masvidal is just making up things to hide the fact he’s an inferior competitor.

“No, there’s no truth to that. Jorge is drawing at straws right now. He has nothing else to say about me because he knows he can’t attack my fighting skills because he knows my fighting skills speak for themselves,” Covington said, speaking to Submission Radio. “And to be honest, he’s never won one second of any type of rounds we’ve ever trained together. And he knows that deep down inside. So he’s just looking for something to promote a future fight. We may have to fight each other. Former best friends turned foes. And that’s how this sport is. There’s no sports, there’s no friends in this type of sport.

“It’s an individual sport and it’s business, so we had to part our friendship. And he’s making up lies, man, he’s trying to say that I owe his coach money. And I can show you the receipts. I’ll go get the receipts right now and show you. I overpaid him if anything. The only percentage that I owe is to American Top Team. I pay them five percent every fight, and that’s the only people I have to pay. I have no obligation to pay any other coaches. All the other coaches that I pay is on me if I want to pay them or not, and I always paid his coach, man. I gave him five to ten grand per fight, and I have the receipts too. So, you know, he’s lying, man. He has nothing else to say.”

With the two still training at the same gym, American Top Team, some have wondered what will happen if the two cross paths. As far as Covington’s concerned, he’s uninterested in any fight that doesn’t take place with a paycheque waiting at the end of it.

“We were pushing each other in the gym. We’d yell in the gym, hey, who’s gonna be the first fighter to get a million-dollar fight, this a that,” Covington said. “We were competing to push each other to these great limits, and here we are now, and now we have to act like kids? I mean, I’m not acting like a kid, he’s acting like a kid. But here we are, and you can’t be professional and understand this game? Yeah, it’s business and we’re not gonna be friends, we’re gonna have to fight each other.

“But it is what it is, man. Just grow up and lets’ not play these childish games where you’re making up lies and you’re saying stupid stuff that isn’t true, let’s just be honest and call things the way they are, call a spade a spade. But apparently that’s hard for him. He’s a Miami little street thug.”