Colby Covington v Jorge Masvidal: Why UFC 272 main event is deeply personal

There is no title at stake in the UFC 272 main event, and it is not a number one contender match to determine who will fight Kamaru Usman for welterweight gold.

Yet the bout between Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal on Saturday in Las Vegas is one of the most anticipated in UFC history as the pair finally settle their bitter feud.

The Americans seriously dislike each other but for many years were best friends, lived together and were training partners at the gym.

Masvidal, 37, even claimed 34-year-old Covington to be «family» in an Instagram post in 2015external-link.

So what went wrong?

Since Masvidal's UFC debut in 2013 and Covington's the following year, the pair have become two of the biggest stars in the promotion.

Such is their drawing power, Saturday's fight will be the first non-title planned main event in the UFC to not feature Conor McGregor or Nate Diaz since Anderson Silva fought Nick Diaz in 2015.

A big part of the appeal of Saturday's fight is the personal relationship between the two, which allegedly ended when they were training together at MMA gym American Top Team in 2018.

They have offered different explanations of what happened.

Masvidal accuses Covington of failing to pay his long-term friend and coach Paulino Hernandez, who was helping Covington prepare for his interim welterweight title win over Rafael dos Anjos at the time.

«He betrayed my coach and I knew since then I'm going to hurt this guy,» Masvidal told MMA Junkieexternal-link.

But according to Covington, the relationship with Masvidal changed after beating Demian Maia.

«The moment our friendship turned sour was 100% after the Demian Maia fight, because he had just lost to Maia — but I beat him and left him in a pool of his own blood in his home