The UFC is long past just being a sport. Nowadays, if a fighter is not popular with the fans, he is much slower to advance to the title and big earnings. American Colby Covington understood this system and was forced to accept the rules or he could have been fired.
Lacking the eloquence of McGregor or Sonnen, Covington has staked his claim on maximum harsh words and quarrels with former friends and his opponents. This article will talk about how the world’s strongest organization changed a once rather humble fighter and turned him into the most hated character in the fighting game.
Childhood and Early Steps
Colby hails from the sunny state of California. However, he soon had to move with his family to Oregon. As a child, he was a very active child. His activity kept him from getting lost on sports teams. One day his father advised him to go wrestling and it changed young Colby’s life.
Spending his entire childhood and then his college years on the mats, the American built up a pretty good base to perform under mixed martial arts rules. Early in his career, the American had an unblemished record of 5 wins without a loss and was signed to the UFC. By the way, even the best cricket betting sites consider such facts. It helps to determine the strongest player in the team and study his habits, which is extremely important when betting is registered in play.
Starting his Career in The USF
Colby started his career in the best organization in the world quite well, getting three wins, two of them early. After that came the first defeat from Worley Alves. The failure did not break the Americans. After all, in addition to the universal hatred, he has a steely character and the ability to overcome difficulties. Colby was back on the winning track, defeating 4 opponents in a row. That’s not a bad result, but the catch was that the audience was not interested in him at all.
The fact is that Covington’s style did not involve long stand-up work. All the fighter did at that time was to take his opponents to the ground and lay on them, throwing light blows, so the referee would not raise them to the rack. In his first 9 fights, Covington had 8 wins, but the UFC management said straight out that they weren’t going to pay him anymore, maybe they would fire Colby altogether. That’s when the Americans began to turn into the Chaos that the entire fighting world knows now.
Turning Into a Trash-talker
Realizing that he wouldn’t make any money from his athletic successes, Colby decides to change everything dramatically. The MMA world already knew the story of Sonen and McGregor, who were getting big fights and money in large part because of their language. Colby wanted to repeat their path, but the American’s public speaking skills were lacking.
In his 10th fight against Brazilian MMA and jiu-jitsu legend Demian Maia, Colby picked up his next win by the referee’s decision. The fight was pretty boring, but what happened afterward no one expected. In his post-fight interview, right in the middle of the octagon, the American called Brazil a dump and all Brazilians filthy animals and demanded from the UFC management normal opponents.
Words can’t describe what was going on at the arena at that moment. More than 10,000 fans rose from their seats and started booing Covington. The world of MMA in general and UFC, in particular, does not have such cases. No one has ever done or said what Covington said. Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that Demian Maia’s opponent Colby is a highly respected fighter and a favorite of the Brazilian public. The fans simply couldn’t help but react to such a statement.
Brazilian fans are known for their temper. Fighting in this country is always hard, and they know how to support their fighters. After the fight, while the American was leaving the arena accompanied by a crowd of guards, popcorn, drink bottles, and spitballs were flying at him. Colby went from a washed-up welterweight to the most talked about a fighter on the roster. Several Brazilians have expressed a desire to fight him, which is a very good way to move up the rankings.
The next opponent for the American was compatriot Maia Dos Anjos, who is a former UFC lightweight champion. The fight again went pretty uneventful, but the excitement around it was pretty great. Covington was able to draw a lot of attention to the fight. Everyone was interested to see how Dos Anjos would beat the cocky upstart who insulted the people of an entire country. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Covington won by unanimous decision.
After defeating Rafael, a rather amusing situation occurred. Covington crossed paths with UFC heavyweight Fabrizio Werdum. The latter did not forget the American’s insults to his people and threw a boomerang at him. It didn’t stay sticking out of Colby’s head, which upset many. However, the interesting thing here is something else.
Covington did a very strange thing. After the incident, he went and filed a police report. It looked very strange. Before the fight, he was a tough guy, insulting his opponents and promising to destroy them, and in case of a conflict, he runs to write a police report. The fighter himself would comment on that later. According to him, everything that happens during press conferences is a show and should be treated as such. But every entertainment content has its moral limits, which the American did not respect, for what he paid more than once.
The Image of a Macho Trump Fan
Thanks to the increased attention and increased popularity, Colby was moving toward his intended goal: the UFC title. He was to fight the once formidable Robbie Lawler for the interim championship belt. The winner had to fight Kamaru Usman.
Before the fight, Colby again said all sorts of things. At the same time, videos of him with female escorts began to appear on his social media accounts, accompanying almost every post. It looked very strange and unnatural. The fighter himself assured that he trains his cardio with these girls, but the models themselves laughed and repeatedly refuted what the fighter said.
Although Covington got a lot of attention, it was more of a negative one. Most just wanted to see him lose, but that didn’t happen. The fighter picked up his next win, setting a record in the weight class for punches thrown the per fight. Colby touched Lawler’s head and body about 500 times. Why did he touch it? Because he didn’t have a knockout punch.
After winning the interim belt, the fighter visited the white house and began appearing everywhere wearing a red cap that read, “Make America Great Again.” He repeatedly professed his love for the then president, making the rest of the fighters even angrier. Then again, no one has ever promoted politicians like Covington did, which brought him even more popularity.
Fighting for The Belt and Fighting Against Former Friends
Treshtok (dirty talk toward his opponents) went so far as to have a falling out even with his teammates at Colby. He finally stopped distinguishing between image and real life. This all culminated in several former friends wanting to deal with him. They were former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, Jorge Masvidal, and lightweight Dustin Poirier. However, the Americans had to fight for the belt.
Covington lost his belt fight by TKO in the fourth round. Surprisingly, before the fight, not all viewers wanted to see him lose. A lot of people were wondering how far this guy without any moral concepts would go. Despite the loss, after the fight, Colby went on to trash the champion he lost to and say that the referee was a very bad man and stopped the fight early. To go for the title again, he had to win. Former friend and teammate Tyrone Woodley was chosen as his opponent.
The press conferences followed a similar scenario. Covington insulted and mentally pressured his former teammate and broke his ribs in the fight. He dominated the two rounds, and in the third, being on top, squeezed his body with his legs with such force that the former champion’s ribs failed. After that victory, the UFC management immediately arranged a rematch with Usman. Now Colby was a star and they couldn’t pass up such a chance.
The second fight for the belt ended in another setback for Colby. This time he lost by decision. But the most surprising thing happened next. By tradition, the American assured everyone that he didn’t lose, but that the judges had misjudged the fight and that he was the people’s champion. Former best friend Jorge Masvidal volunteered to dispute it. He was inferior in skill but wanted to get back at his former friend for all the insults against him.
Before the fight, Covington once again overstepped his bounds. He asked Jorge why he wasn’t paying alimony, accused him of cheating on his wife, and insinuated that he wasn’t bad with her. All the dirty laundry was pulled out of the hamper and shown to millions of fans around the world. Masvidal promised he wouldn’t leave it like that, but he couldn’t win a fair fight, losing by decision.
Colby was back on the winning track. While celebrating his victory at a restaurant, Covington happened to meet Masvidal. It may not have been an accident, but the latter was deliberately looking for his former friend. Be that as it may, Jorge was already stronger in the street fight. He did not forgive what he said about his ex-wife and children and knocked out some of Colby’s teeth. Also, according to some of the fighters who talk to both of them, Covington suffered a neck injury that will keep him out for a year.
That’s how the number two ranked fighter and one of the most popular fighters paid for his tongue. About a year has passed since the accident. During that time, Covington has not made a single statement. The American, who used to comment on every event in the world of MMA, went underground. The only thing we know about him is that he took 5th place in an online poker tournament and won $70,000. We can only hope that this situation will not break the American and that he will return to the octagon without giving up his bad-boy image.
