Colby Covington has made plenty of headlines in the past for making derogatory and inflammatory remarks.

But, on account of comments Covington made about Kamaru Usman, Tyron Woodley and the Black Lives Movement this past weekend, the controversial fighter is encountering some serious blowback.

Covington asks Usman if “tribe” sent him “smoke signals”, calls Black Lives Matter a “sham”

Following Covington’s win over Tyron Woodley this past weekend, he appeared on ESPN along with Kamaru Usman.  During the heated exchange, Covington blasted the Nigerian born, Usman, but the following statement was quickly labeled by some observers as racist (quote via MMA Mania).

“You get a call from, frickin’, your little tribe? They give you some smoke signals for you? You’re a joke, Marty Fakenewsman.”

During the post-fight presser, Covington also called Black Lives Matter a “sham”, and he claimed the de-centralized movement includes “complete terrorists” and “bad criminals”. 

Several fighters call Covington’s comments racist

MMA Fighting reached out to welterweight contender Leon Edwards, who not only called Covington’s comments racist, he blasted the UFC and ESPN for not speaking out against them.

“That’s what got me – the UFC has said nothing about it,” Edwards said. “ESPN has said nothing about it.

Letting it flow like it’s a normal thing to f**king say and do and it’s not. Your tribe and smoke signals and blah, blah, blah, and he’s calling Woodley a terrorist because of Black Lives Matter.

All these statements he’s making is racist. There’s no other way to go around it.”

“If it was the other way around, if a Black athlete was saying to a white athlete in that regards, people would report it straight away,” Edwards continued.

“I find it very weird that no one is stepping up and no one is saying anything. UFC isn’t saying anything about it. ESPN is allowing it to carry on.

I understand he’s creating a character, but race that’s not a character. That’s just hate, and he’s spreading hate. I never liked the guy and after that – I 100 percent don’t like the guy.”

UFC featherweight Hakeem Dawodu had this to say about Covington’s remarks.

“I found them extremely rude, racist,” Dawodu. “I’m kind of surprised he’s allowed to talk free like that. You know everyone’s allowed to talk freely, but I took offense to it.

It’s crazy that it’s comments like that causing more and more of a divide amongst the people. So that’s how he gets down, but I’m not really with that, and I took offense to that for sure.

“That’s racist. They were almost worried about my walkout song, and he’s going to be saying stuff like that and that’s crazy, especially on such a big stage.

I feel like that’s only going to promote more and more divide and cause more and more issues.

He’s got the president calling him, backing him up on that. I don’t really appreciate it, and that’s how it is I guess.”

In addition, bantamweight Sijara Eubanks also labeled Covington’s statements as racist.

“Let’s be real first and foremost, it wasn’t unfortunate, it was flat out racist what Colby was saying,” Eubanks said.

“It was racist, it was disgusting and quite frankly disappointing. But at the same time, the one thing I do appreciate is the UFC lets whoever say whatever.

They have never muzzled us as fighters. If you want to talk, don’t want to talk.

If you want to be political, you don’t want to be political. I have to appreciate that the company lets us say what we want.”

As this is being written, neither the UFC or ESPN have issued any public statement regarding Covington’s comments.

In the past, many Covington’s supporters or defenders have claimed the fighter plays a character, as a means to generate attention and promote his fights. In 2017, Covington came under fire for calling Brazilian fans “filthy animals”.

Mentioned in this article:

More About: