Despite claiming there was no way he was going to be ready to face Tyron Woodley at UFC 228, there is no mistaking the fact that Woodley’s name has been the one on the lips of Covington the most frequently, with Covington calling Woodley out for a title shot everything a microphone was presented to his face. After winning the interim title, the fight made itself. However, with Covington being unable to accept the September 8th date for UFC 228, the promotion moved on and pitted surging welterweight Darren Till against Woodley instead. Covington maintains that he still wants the winner of Darren Till vs. Tyron Woodley next, but now, he is saying that the welterweight champion isn’t the only man he’d be willing to face:

“There’s only a couple of fights that would make sense for me,” Covington said. There’s obviously defending my undisputed belt against the No. 1 contender winner, Darrell “Doughboy” Till, or Tyquil Woodley… but there’s some other fights that present themselves,” Covington began before naming names. “GSP, that little syrup sucker, he can come get this. He thinks he’s the greatest welterweight of all time. I have something else to say about that. I’ll destroy him. I’ll send him back to Canada crying. He can eat his little poutine there. I’m going to get my poontang here in America like a real American champion.”

The interim welterweight champion would then move on to the second opponent he would be glad to face:

“Nick Diaz is another guy. If he stops beating women, he can come get it, too. He’s probably going broke soon cause he’s been in jail and he’s spending all his money on drugs. He can come get this ass whooping, too.”

Beyond the welterweight division, Covington is also open to facing both members of the UFC 229 main event if they should dare try to become a double champion at his expense:

“There’s a couple lightweights *— Khabib [Nurmagomedov] and Conor [McGregor. If they want to make a claim to another belt, I’ve got the undisputed welterweight belt. So those fights might present themselves.

“Besides those fights, that’s the only ones out there in the universe for me right now.”