Breakdown of friendship: Falling-out at American Top Team

Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal were documented training partners and occasional roommates at American Top Team (ATT) in South Florida during the mid-2010s, appearing together in camp photos and shared routines [1]. According to long-form reporting, friction began in late 2017 and culminated in a formal split during 2018: media accounts reference interpersonal disputes in the ATT locker room and a specific disagreement involving coach Paulino Hernandez and an alleged payment dispute as contributing factors [1]. ESPN summarized the arc by saying the pair 'had a falling out in 2018' after repeated incidents that strained relations inside the gym [1]. The reporting does not record a single public confrontation that ended the friendship; rather, multiple ATT teammates and staff distanced themselves from Covington as his promotional tactics and public persona created internal tensions, per coverage of the period [1]. Immediate reactions in the media framed the separation as consequential because ATT is a centralized training hub; outlets noted the split when Covington later left ATT in 2020 and pursued a separate training base [1]. The falling-out later served as background for the fighters' formal booking against one another at UFC 272, converting private gym disputes into a public sports rivalry [1].

The 2018 split transformed a cooperative training relationship into a personal rivalry that later expanded into the public arena. Reporting ties the breakdown to concrete gym-level issues—locker-room friction and a reported payment dispute involving coach Paulino Hernandez—which helps explain why animosity persisted after teammates separated from the conflict [1]. That rupture set the stage for a promotional, competitive rematch: when promoters matched the two at UFC 272 in 2022, the history at ATT provided context for the bout and shaped public interest in the fight [1].

After the reported 2018 falling-out, the relationship remained fractured over the next two years. Media outlets tracked Covington’s continued role as a provocative public figure and reported that ATT ownership and teammates increasingly distanced themselves, culminating in Covington’s departure from ATT in 2020 [1]. The unresolved interpersonal issues from 2018 eventually contributed to the narrative when the UFC booked Covington vs. Masvidal as a grudge main event for March 5, 2022, converting the private split into a headline sporting rematch [1][2].