Alexandre Pantoja 'More Connected' to Leon Edwards Than Ex-Teammate Covington

Alexandre Pantoja doesn’t have a high opinion of former American Top Team training partner Colby Covington.

Covington will challenge Leon Edwards for the welterweight crown in the UFC 296 main event, while Pantoja will defend his flyweight strap against Brandon Royval in the evening’s co-headliner on Dec. 16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Pantoja recently revealed on MMAFighting’s Trocação Franca podcast that he wants to have nothing to do with Covington during fight week and would rather like to meet Edwards, whose story he relates to and respects.

“I don’t care,” Pantoja said. “I was born in Copacabana and we are disgusting towards everybody [laughs]. There’s an artist right next to you and you don’t care. I respect him a lot as an athlete, but in a way I’m more connected to Leon Edwards because of his life story and everything he’s done. Leon Edwards is definitely someone I would go out of my way to shake hands and wish him a good fight, say I’m a big fan his work. Now, about that a—hole, I won’t say anything. Leave him alone [laughs].”

A part of ATT since 2011, Covington exited the gym in 2020 following a series of public feuds with high-profile teammates such as Jorge Masvidal, Dustin Poirier and Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Pantoja believes Covington left because he wanted to be the center of attention in a gym that runs on a team-first philosophy.

“[Covington] moved to a team where he thinks he’ll get all the attention, but I think MMA is not about that,” he said. “Even though we’re fighting alone in there, there’s a great team behind us. [At ATT] you’re just another one training, but I think Colby couldn’t handle being just another one. He wanted all the attention but he wouldn’t get that here.

“American Top Team owner always tells [coach Marcos] Parrumpa that he likes my attitude in the gym because I’m always open to training with every training partner. I was just helping Kayla Harrison and the session was awesome, you know? I like helping everybody because I get so much help too. [Parrumpa] says Dan Lambert was very emotional when I won the belt because of that exact reason, because I dedicate to help my teammates as well. Colby can’t do that. He wants to be the main person all the time, and that wouldn’t be possible at American Top Team.”