UFC rivals Masvidal & Covington clash in fiery press conference (VIDEO)

One of the most red-hot rivalries in recent UFC history had brewed over into a chaotic, insult-filled slanging match when former friends turned bitter rivals Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington came face-to-face in Las Vegas on Thursday night.

A feud which began on the mats of the American Top Team facility in Florida several years ago descended into a maelstrom of malcontent in front of an intense media glare, at times bordering on the absurd as the fighters verbally sparred over, among other things, how many times each man had been invited to the White House.

Both men have, over the last few years, positioned themselves as having a close relationship with former US President Donald Trump, with the MAGA-obsessed Covington having been invited for an audience in the Oval Office and Masvidal's influence among Latino voters being borrowed on the campaign trail by Donald Trump Jr. ahead of the 2020 election. 

But if Masvidal and Covington are on similar ground politically, not so anywhere else as the two laid waste to one another in a what was, at times, a frankly unwatchable jawing match between two men with not a lot to say, but all night to say it. 

Covington scolded the "deadbeat dad" Masvidal, warning him that he was a "f**king bum" who will be "easy work" on Saturday night, while also bizarrely offering a civics pop quiz and demanding that Masvidal state for the record that he knows how a bill becomes law. 

He even alleged that Masvidal took out a protection loan during the pandemic; a new front, apparently, in the realm of combat sports trash-talk. 

Masvidal, for his part, brought with him a video player showing him burning a Covington trading card on a loop, something he said was for sale "because I’m always going to make money off this b***h", adding that his foe is "dumb and ignorant and broke."

Little was said of strategy in between insults. Dana White, the ringmaster of this circus, largely took a backseat throughout, on occasion miming that his hearing issues brought on by his real-life struggle with Meniere's disease was making him little more than an innocent passenger in this pileup. 

The entire 30-minute event took place with a twitchy UFC security team posturing that they were ready to step in a second's notice, with the actual local police also providing a similarly stern backdrop - overkill, one might think, to what was at its core a schoolyard squabble.

But when the two fighters came up close for a face-off, Masvidal threw a small kick at his rival much to consternation of White and his security team who quickly jostled them apart. 

One man's forecast of the fight will ultimately be proven right on Saturday night. The oddsmaker have made Covington a near 3-1 favorite, but Masvidal has proven in the past that he is adept at upsetting the odds. 

And regardless of either fighter's knowledge, or lack thereof, of the law legislature system in the United States, fight fans will be hoping that another form of justice is doled out in Las Vegas tomorrow night – or at the very least that the showdown is a whole lot better than its preview.