ATT owner: It would be 'a little uncomfortable' if Covington, Masvidal fight
American Top Team owner Dan Lambert says it wouldn't be ideal if two of his fighters, Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal, eventually face off against each other. However, he believes that would be a sign of strength for his gym.
"If two guys are gonna fight in a high-profile fight, it's not the best situation to have them both be your guys, because you're basically guaranteed one of them is going to lose," Lambert told theScore on Friday. "And losing at that level of the sport is not a good thing for a fighter. So, that part of it is unfortunate.
"On the flip side, hey man, we're doing something right if we got two guys that are both at the top of the weight class fighting for a title in a big fight. It's a little uncomfortable, it's unfortunate that one of them will have to come out on the bottom end, but it's part of the game, it goes with it."
Covington, who is co-managed by Lambert, will challenge Kamaru Usman for the UFC welterweight title at UFC 245 on Saturday in Las Vegas.
A victory over Usman could potentially set up a fight with Masvidal, who's coming off a BMF title win over Nate Diaz at UFC 244 in November. Masvidal has won three straight bouts, including a five-second knockout of Ben Askren, which turned "Gamebred" into one of the year's breakout stars.
Covington and Masvidal used to be best friends but recently started publicly feuding. Covington said earlier this week he'd like to fight Masvidal in his first title defense should he beat Usman on Saturday.
Masvidal said after his win over Diaz he wasn't as interested in competing for the 170-pound title, as he was taking money fights against Nick Diaz and Conor McGregor.
If Covington versus Masvidal does ever happen, though, Lambert is confident the gym would handle it appropriately.
"We would set it up the right way - give them each the coaching and the attention they need to keep them separated and go from there," Lambert said.
"We got 100 pro fighters in our gym. That's a lot of egos, that's a lot of alphas. It's not the first time we've had people not get along," Lambert added. "We're pros at the gym, we communicate well, we make sure we sit everybody down and tell them what's expected of them and what they should expect from us. We get on the same page with our fighters. It's just all about communication and setting it up the right way. It hasn't been that much of a distraction."