Colby Covington Hits Out At Kamaru Usman, Mark Goddard, UFC & NSAC
Seven weeks on from UFC 245 and Colby Covington has finally broken his silence. And having lost via a controversial TKO in the last minute of the main event against Kamaru Usman, the 31 year old had a lot of grievances to get off his chest.
Speaking to MMA Fighting, Covington laid into Usman, referee Marc Goddard, the UFC and the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC).
“I went out there and I beat up ‘Marty Fakenewsman’ for 24 minutes until the ref had to stop the fight on a fake stoppage – a bulls*** stoppage. [A stoppage] where I was completely coherent and still in the fight, and he just blatantly stopped the fight, after there was a foul, too. He’s hitting me in the back of the head four times and he blatantly calls the fight, because he knows he doesn’t want it to go to the judges’ scorecards cause I could win.
“I was fighting against two people that night. Against ‘Marc Not So Goodard’ and against ‘Marty Fakenewsman.’ Why would I hang my head about that? I went out there and fought my ass off. I went through the championship rounds and people saw how tough I was, and they know who the best welterweight in the world is, and that’s Colby ‘Chaos’ Covington.”
The stoppage wasn’t the only moment in the fight, Covington wasn’t happy about. There was also a questionable low blow on Usman in the second round, which in the replay, was shown to not actually be a low blow.
“In the second round, that’s a huge momentum shift when I kick him in the liver and ‘Marty Fakenewsman’ says ‘oh it’s a nut shot,’ and he looks for Marc Goddard because he’s literally about to fold up because his organs are shutting down on him, and he wants to quit the fight. ‘Oh Marc Goddard save me, nut shot, nut shot!’ Give him a couple minutes to recover. That’s a huge momentum shift.
“Do you not realise that? Are the people that stupid and that dumb that they can’t go rewatch that fight and analyse that and say that’s a complete momentum shift in the fight. I kick him in the liver, I’m about to fold him up and hit him with shots and then I go from that to him recovering fully because he gets a five-minute break.”
As well as the questionable low blow, Covington also accused Usman of faking an eye poke. Although he acknowledges there may have been a slight eye poke, the former interim welterweight champion said Kamaru used this an excuse for another break.
“I kick him in the right side of the head and land a high kick and wobble him. He’s sliding on the Octagon with his feet and I go to chamber another kick and I barely maybe grazed my pinky across his eye — ‘Oh, eye poke!’ — but he doesn’t even sell the eye that I poked, the left eye. He sells the right eye! That’s how bad of an actor ‘Marty Fakenewsman’ is.
“When the doctor comes in, (he said), “Oh, my right eye,” (and) he’s blinking. Dude, go look at the video. I supposedly put the pinky in his left eye, but he’s selling for the right eye. Why’s he doing that? Here’s another life raft that Marc ‘Not So’ Goddard gives him and lets him get another break.”
And it wasn’t just the events inside the Octagon that upset Covington, the American Top Team man wasn’t happy that the UFC broadcasted him telling his corner in between the third and forth round that he had broke his jaw. Although ‘Chaos’ now denies breaking his jaw, he claims that Usman was made aware of this and gave him a much needed boost.
“Is that legal that they can get my corner audio in between rounds? Whether my jaw is broken or it isn’t broken, to get that information in a world championship fight when there’s two rounds left to go. That’s huge information.”
“I don’t care if you’re down and you’re completely ready to quit. That’s going to get you right up like, ‘I’ve got this guy on the ropes now.’ That’s f****ing corrupt in itself.”
Covington again returned to the end of the fight, once again hitting out at Goddard.
“Yeah, I slip on a banana peel, he clipped me; I’m completely still in the fight. I fought in a double leg [takedown]. I’m a wrestler. I grew up shooting double legs and getting guys in a sprawl position. I can relax there, I can breathe, I’m chilling. I feel comfortable there. That’s where I grew up in the wrestling mats, doing double-leg takedowns. He sprawled out – oh, he’s hitting me in the back of the head, it’s clear as day on the f***ing video. Go rewatch the tape. It’s clear as day. He’s hitting me in the back of the head at least three or four times.
“When he’s hitting me in the back of the head, I even actually cover and put my hand behind it to stop it while I’m completely coherent, completely still in the fight, and all of a sudden Marc Goddard just calls the fight. I’m like are you f***ing serious? I stood up and I’m like, ‘What are you doing?’ [He says], ‘Oh Colby don’t worry about it,’ saying stupid things (like) ‘that was clearly stopped.’ If it’s clearly stopped, why am I right in your face talking to you clearly? I’m coherent. I’m completely in the fight. How do you call the fight? You rob me of a f***ing fair fight, motherf***er.”
Stating that he believed the fight was corrupt and fixed, Covington is demanding an immediate rematch.
“It was two against one that f***ing night, December 14th at UFC 245. It wasn’t one on one. I got robbed of a one-on-one fair fight. That motherf***er made a clear difference in that fight, and if ‘Marty Fakenewsman’ didn’t have that f***ing ref, I’d be world champion right now, and I’m going to get my f***ing rematch and it’s going to be a different story.
“What could be more wrong and corrupt that somebody could do that? For people to not see that and be clearly not biased about their opinion is absolutely pathetic. Just look at the facts. Look at the video. That fight was fixed, and that was clear enough that they need to do a rematch.”
Covington insists that it is not only him who wants to see an automatic rematch, saying that the fans want to see it as well.
“My next fight should be the automatic rematch with ‘Marty Fakenewsman. I’m still America’s champ. I’m still Donald Trump’s favourite fighter. I’m still the people’s champion. The people want this more than ever. The people saw for their eyes. I don’t care what the promotion wants to do, because we know they do some stupid things; that’s a whole other story in itself. I’m talking what the people want. The people that paid their hard-earned money for the tickets. The people that buy your pay-per-views. The people want this rematch.
“They saw with their own eyes what happened in that fight. What happened in that fight was me beating the s*** out of ‘Marty Fakenewsman’ for 24 minutes and then the ref completely saving him and bailing him out with a fake stoppage.”
Having claimed that he beat up Usman for 24 minutes, Covington is now demanding an immediate rematch. Insisting that he won’t fight anyone else.
“Fake nut shot, fake eye poke, fake corner audio, fake ref, fake NSAC, fake everything. Put this on a level playing field, it’s a completely different fight. Ten out of ten times, I’m winning that fight every single time. I’m not fighting anybody but ‘Marty Fakenewsman.’ This needs to be settled back in Vegas. They know they f***ed up.”
Covington may be disappointed however, earlier this week, UFC president Dana White stated that Usman will defend his title against Jorge Masvidal in July.
As well as hitting out in this interview, Covington also took to social media to prove that neither Usman’s claims of a low blow nor eye poke were legitimate.
Do you think the UFC should give Colby Covington an immediate rematch against Kamaru Usman?
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