UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington has claimed that Jorge Masvidal pulled out of December's UFC 269 card due to suffering broken ribs.

Masvidal was set to take on Leon Edwards on the main card, only to pull out of the fight due to an undisclosed injury.

Covington, who was once Masvidal's training partner, has spoken out on why his now rival pulled out of his bout with Edwards.

Covington told Submission Radio: 'I'll tell you the truth of what happened with Jorge Masvidal for real. I still have people at his gym that still love me, and I'm the people's champ for a reason. 

'So, I get the insider scoop on everything. So, that fragile dude, Street Judas Jorge Masvidal, he broke his ribs. He fractured his ribs last Saturday in training, and yeah, he's fragile and he had to pull out of the fight. 

'It's too bad that people still love me over at his gym more than they even love him.'

Covington left the American Top Team gym under acrimonious circumstances with Masvidal claiming Chaos didn’t want to pay the gym or head coach, Dan Lambert.

The 33-year-old who hopes to fight Masvidal some point in 2022, called his rival 'fragile' for pulling out of the fight with the injury.

He said: 'He went to sparring at the gym and gets his ribs fractured, leaves the gym crying and, you know, goes to the doctor and gets the X-ray, and they determine it's fractured ribs.

'He’s a fragile little bitch. He’s a brittle little bitch. He tried to talk about me being fragile. That’s the most fragilest (sic) guy on the fucking roster. 

'That guy’s a complete little joke. And it’s pretty funny, I think he’s finding out that he’s a nobody, he’s a bum, and that’s the reason people are telling me what’s going on with him. 

'He tried to keep it a secret, He didn’t want to tell the media, he didn’t want people to know, but now they know because of Colby Chaos Covington.'

Edwards also hit out at Masvidal after the fight scheduled for December 11 was called off. 

After hearing the news he tweeted: 'Disappointed but honestly I knew this fraud didn’t want to fight me anyway.

'He was just a stop off on the way to the title. The goal remains the same. Much needed family time now, Kamaru Usman, I will see you soon.'

Masvidal meanwhile has expressed interest in rebooking his fight with Edwards, but is also open to settling his grudge match with Covington