Bo Nickal said Wednesday that Colby Covington ended his MMA career to avoid fighting him at the White House this Sunday, turning an already strange fight week into a public shot at a rival he has been calling out for months.
Nickal made the comment at UFC Freedom 250 media day, where he said he was grateful for the chance to compete on the South Lawn and called it the biggest and most exciting event he has been part of. He is scheduled to fight Kyle Daukaus on Sunday after their bout moved forward when the Covington option disappeared.
“It’s crazy that he doesn’t want to fight me so bad that he ended his entire career,” Nickal said, adding that Covington’s choice was “probably a smart move by his part.” The line lands because Nickal had already publicly challenged Covington to meet him at the White House earlier in the year, when he said he had not even signed to face Daukaus yet and urged Covington to call the UFC brass to make the fight happen.
The hard part is that Covington was also asking to fight before making the surprising move to retire. That leaves Nickal’s theory in the realm of public score-settling, not fact. The pair already had a hostile history, including an ugly split from American Top Team many years ago and a round of insults at an RAF press conference earlier in the year, so the accusation fits the feud even if it does not explain the retirement.
Nickal also made clear he is not treating Daukaus as an afterthought. He said Daukaus was cut by the UFC in 2022 and re-signed in 2025, and described that return as a sign of toughness and skill. “It says a lot to be able to, you know, make it back to the UFC after being cut,” he said, before adding that he was looking forward to putting on a dominant performance Sunday.
What happens next is simpler than the noise around it: Nickal fights Daukaus on the South Lawn, while Covington’s reason for stepping away stays unanswered. If Covington really did bow out to avoid Nickal, the White House card lost a flashpoint bout before it was ever signed. If he did not, Nickal has still managed to keep his name in the center of one of the week’s biggest story lines.
