UFC 272: Jorge Masvidal Likened By Mike Tyson's Former Trainer To Roy Jones

One of Mike Tyson’s former trainers has dropped his bold takes on UFC 272: Covington vs. Masvidal.

Renowned boxing trainer Teddy Atlas has detailed a few interesting things to watch out for at UFC 272’s main event--the highly-anticipated grudge match between former pals Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington.

Atlas joined ESPN MMA’s team to share his thoughts on the upcoming fight and started off by comparing Masvidal to boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. Aware that he has made a wild comparison, the 65-year-old then backed it up with an in-depth explanation.

According to Atlas, Masvidal is somewhat equal to Jones in terms of creativity in striking and the ability to “make it happen.” However, he reckoned that the UFC star is more athletic than the boxing Hall of Famer at the same age.

“Roy Jones,” Atlas replied when asked how he would describe Masvidal. “But before you go crazy, Roy Jones was very special but not quite as athletic [as Masvidal] at least at this point at 37 years of age but very creative.”

“[Masvidal] thinks of himself as a guy that makes it happen, creates it as he’s doing it,” he continued. “There’s no set script that says, ‘Well, I’m gonna do it this way,’ he’ll make it up. Cus D’Amato would always tell me ‘special ones make it up as they do it.’ He’s got that ability and that cerebralness to create and create havoc, but he thinks of himself as a boxer and that’s where I frame him.”

In a recent episode of “The Fight with Teddy Atlas,” Atlas predicted how both Covington and Masvidal could utilize their strengths.

Atlas said he expects “Chaos” to come in aggressive and shoot for massive takedowns. However, if Covington gets careless, “Gamebred” could knock him out with one shot.

“At the end of the day, they’re both going to try to play into their strengths,” Atlas predicted. “As I said, [for] Covington, [he should] get the takedowns, come in, don’t get careless, try not to get hit too much. One thing with Covington is he’s a southpaw, he gets hit a lot of right hands. He got hit [and] he got a broken jaw in the first [Kamaru] Usman fight. He needs to avoid some of those right hands because that’s Masvidal’s chance – to land a good straight right hand."

"[Masvidal's] a good striker, he’s creative, he’s got pretty good legs, he’s 37 years old I know, but he’s gonna need those legs [too],” he continued. “He’s gonna need to keep range, he’s gonna need to keep distance separations and he’s gonna need to make Covington pay a price for real estate… Charge him for real estate, not money, but punches.”