UFC 245: Kamaru Usman Gives Colby Covington “Props” For Being “Universally Hated”

Colby Covington has secured a bout with welterweight champion Kamaru Usman this Saturday at UFC 245 on account of an impressive winning streak. But, during that time he’s also become one of the sport’s most controversial figures, and recently, Usman gave “Chaos” “props” for accomplishing that.

Usman believes Covington could be the most hated fighter in history

Covington has been making waves in the Octagon and outside of it in recent years, on account of his seven fight winning streak and various, controversial statements he’s made. Like for example, calling Brazilian fans “filthy animals”. More recently, the daughters of the late Glenn Robinson released a statement denouncing comments Covington made, about their father’s passing.

Well, recently Usman spoke with MMA Fighting, and while talking about his rival, he said this:

“I understand why he’s doing it because he wants something to talk about to try and ruin someone’s name or identity or what not,” Usman said. “None of that is going to matter. At the end of the day, god willing, he steps into that cage, and when we hit each other for the first time, he’s going to understand that it’s different.”

“I will give him props, I don’t think in the history of the sport—it’s almost like the history of combat sports period—I don’t think there’s ever been a guy universally hated this bad,” Usman said. “In the last couple of months, I’ve been in maybe five or six different countries, and I can’t tell you how many people would come up to me and say ‘I can’t wait for you to kill this guy.’ It’s overwhelming with an alarming amount.

“He’s done something right, because to be hated by the world, that’s tough to do.”

Is Covington the most reviled fighter ever?

Now, there’s no question that Covington has a lot of haters. But, it’s hard to say how well known Covington is in the mainstream world. His profile has certainly grown in recent years, particularly in the United States, but he’s likely not a household name just yet.

Case in point, Covington only has just over 100,000 followers on Twitter. Conor McGregor, on the other hand, has over 7 million. We all know that McGregor has millions of fans, but, he’s also no stranger to controversy, and therefore, there’s a lot of people who don’t exactly care for the former UFC champ too.

All this aside, if Covington loses to Usman on Saturday, it’s going to be really interesting to see how “Chaos” frames it, and whether he’s going to be as inflammatory moving forward.

UFC 245 will be hosted by the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.