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The long-term history between Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal will finally be settled when the two share the octagon in a little under a month's time.
Although he has since relocated to MMA Masters, Covington was once a dedicated member of American Top Team, the same gym where his friend-turned-foe resides.
The two welterweights have spent countless hours sparring and helping one another through years of training. Despite both fighters feeling they have the advantage heading into their bout, Chael Sonnen believes otherwise.
In a recent post on Twitter, Sonnen shared a snippet from his ESPN show. He gave his views on the fight between Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal.
The former two-division UFC title challenger suggested their experience training together won't play a big part in the UFC 272 result.
"These two believe they know each other. They sparred every single day. They won't tell us what happened but between the two of them, they know who the big brother was, they know who the boss of the room was. [But] they're wrong. I don't care what happened in those sessions, Jorge Masvidal was a 155 pounder at the time, [and] Colby Covington was a contender at 170. Jorge Masvidal has done his best work in his entire career, and I mean by far, since moving into the welterweight division."
Check out Chael Sonnen's thoughts on the fight below:
Chael Sonnen thinks Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington need to forget their past sparring sessions
Masvidal and Covington are exuding confidence heading into their meeting in a few weeks' time. While they have both suffered defeats to Kamaru Usman twice in their last three outings, the two elite welterweights will no doubt be hoping for a title shot with a win at UFC 272.
To get their hands raised, however, Chael Sonnen suggests past sparring sessions should be erased from each of Covington and Masvidal's minds. He further said in the posted video:
"Now, I submit for you, while it may be the same guys doing similar things, when you're not the same weight class, it's not the same sparring sessions as either one of them remember. So they both better be buckled down, they both had better know the power, the strength and the speed is going to be different. This is going to be unlike any sparring session, whether they agree with me or not, I'm right."
The war of words between the fierce rivals continues to rage. We'll finally get to see who the better man is when they step inside the T-Mobile Arena to headline UFC 272 on March 5.
