Colby Covington Reignites Jon Jones Feud, Drags Cormier Into It

Colby Covington has never met a feud he didn't want to escalate, and his latest target is Jon Jones. In a social media broadside, the 17-5 welterweight accused the former two-division champ of being abusive and narcissistic, then twisted the knife by dragging Daniel Cormier into it — the one man Jones genuinely couldn't stand across a decade of rivalry.

Covington's message tore into Jones over long-standing domestic allegations, took a shot at Jones' training partner Gable Steveson, and suggested Steveson would be better off leaving Jones to work with Cormier instead. It's an ugly line of attack, and it lands squarely on an old wound: Jones (28-1) and Cormier traded two of the most hostile bouts in UFC history, Jones winning both before the second was overturned to a no-contest.

Why This One Stings

Invoking Cormier is a calculated jab. The two heavyweights brawled in a media scrum, hurled years of personal insults, and never reconciled. By positioning Cormier as the "real man" Steveson should train with, Covington is poking at the exact nerve that's followed Jones his entire career.

The timing is notable too. Jones (11 KO, 7 SUB) has been inactive since his last outing, a third-round TKO title defense, and remains unranked only because of that layoff. He stepped away from the sport with his heavyweight belt rather than face Tom Aspinall, leaving the division in limbo and Jones himself an easy target for anyone looking to generate heat.

Covington Needs the Noise

For Covington, the motivation isn't hard to read. He's 0-for-his-last-few, coming off a doctor's stoppage TKO loss to Joaquin Buckley that dropped him out of the welterweight rankings entirely. His trash-talk-first career model has always depended on relevance, and feuding with the biggest name in the sport is a reliable way to stay in the conversation.

Whether Jones bothers to respond is another question. He's shown little interest in low-stakes beefs since retiring, and Covington has nothing in common with him competitively — different division, different weight class, different orbit entirely. But provocation this personal rarely goes unanswered for long. If Jones does fire back, Covington will have gotten exactly what he wanted.