Themba Gorimbo once spoke Colby Covington’s praises when they were teammates at the same Florida gym, but those days are long gone now.

During his rise to fame after Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson took notice of Gorimbo’s story struggling to make it financially as a fighter after moving to the United States from Zimbabwe, Gorimbo backed Covington against the constant barrage of hate he receives for the outlandish statements made before and after his fights. Covington seemingly goes out of his way to get under everybody’s skin, but Gorimbo initially said that his teammate was misjudged, especially after the one-time interim UFC welterweight champion went out of his way to offer help when it was most needed.

That all changed a year ago and at least partially played a part in Gorimbo’s move from MMA Masters in Florida to his new team at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas.

“It’s something that Colby did to me that crossed the line and there’s consequences for your actions and he’s going to pay for them,” Gorimbo told MMA Fighting. “There’s consequences for every action that a man does, and whether it’s now or next year, he’s going to pay for it.”

Gorimbo says the falling out boiled down to one incident where Covington effectively big-timed him while they were both trying to get some work done at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas.

“He kicked me out of the [UFC Performance Institute] in December 2023 when I was trying to train on the treadmill,” Gorimbo revealed. “The P.I. is for everybody, and he thought that the P.I. belonged to him. He was cutting weight to fight Leon Edwards, and I understand it can be tough.

“But I also was going to cut weight, but I don’t go to the P.I. and cut weight and chase everybody out of the P.I. just because I think I own the company. That for me is the trigger point.”

To make matters worse, Gorimbo claimed it wasn’t even Covington who booted him from the gym but rather somebody he sent to tell his teammate that he wasn’t allowed in the same area while the always outspoken welterweight cut weight for his title fight.

It might not have bothered Gorimbo so much if not for the fact that he routinely trained with Covington so it’s not like they weren’t friendly with each other. Add to that, Gorimbo says he was just trying to get some work done like every other fighter going to the UFC P.I. so he had no plans to distract Covington from the work he was doing.

“[That incident is] one of the reasons I had to leave the gym,” Gorimbo said about his altercation with Covington. “My morals and his morals. We’re going to find out when we get this [fight]. Slowly but surely,

“I know he’s not next for me, but I now have to start putting targets on the guys that I want. On my way to the belt, I want to walk through him.”

Going from teammates and acquaintances to enemies is a big switch but Gorimbo isn’t forgiving or forgetting how Covington treated him in that moment.

Gorimbo believes Covington might be happier that they aren’t training together any longer, especially after what he describes as an aggressive sparring session they shared while still working under the same roof.

“You must ask him what happened the last time we sparred,” Gorimbo said. “He will tell you. I don’t know who was bleeding between the two of us but one of us was bleeding. He crossed the line with me.

“I’d like to fight the ranked guys, and he’s one of the guys I would like to go through before I get to the title.”