The Colby Covington–Jorge Masvidal beef is getting so much airtime ahead of their UFC 272 clash that one sportsbook is running a market on whether they will be civil enough to touch gloves before they fight.
The answer, according to Cloudbet, is probably not. The crypto sportsbook reckons there’s a 60% chance the one-time training partners will snub each other, as implied by the -152 odds offered on its site.
The price on Covington and Masvidal giving each other the traditional gentleman’s dap before hostilities commence is +129. The market covers the window from when the two face off in the Octagon to 3 seconds into Round 1.
“Clearly the narrative centers around how much they hate each other, and that’s reflected in the odds,” said Steve Hennessy, senior sports trading manager at Cloudbet. “It’s hard to figure out though how much of it is real and how much of it is show to sell pay-per-views. That’s reflected in the other side of the market.”
Covington is the favorite at -337 to beat Masvidal (+281) in their co-main event clash in Las Vegas, according to Cloudbet. Covington is the top contender for Kamaru Usman’s welterweight title, while Masvidal is ranked 6th.
Both fighters’ most recent losses were to Usman, Covington most recently in November at UFC 268.