Colby Covington definitely isn’t happy with the UFC right now…
This time last year Colby Covington was on top of the world. Then he watched it crash down around him after he was stripped of his interim UFC welterweight title. Since then, he’s gone back and forth with the promotion and Dana White.
Love him or hate him, Covington definitely makes headlines. He’s incredibly obnoxious, which makes him controversial. However, his talent is also undeniable. If you don’t believe us, check out how he overwhelmed Robbie Lawlor during the summer.
Now he’s expected to fight Kamaru Usman, but there’s one major problem. The UFC can’t get the two men to sign a deal and the welterweight division is in stasis. Covington insists that he’s not going to back down until the UFC treats him better. He could be waiting a while so.
Slave Labour
According to Covington, the UFC bullies its fighters into taking bad deals. He’s refusing to back down, even if it means getting a title fight.
“That’s how UFC does business, they do the bully tactics,” Covington told BJPenn.com in a recent interview. “They do the slave labour negotiations. It’s sick man. They don’t want to pay any of the fighters because they want everybody to be poor, so they keep back coming back and fighting all the time, and fighting six times a year.”
Not Fair
According to Covington the UFC also shows a lot of favouritism. Robbie Lawlor had a lot more training time than him in the run-up to their fight. While it didn’t matter in the end, it’s the principle of the situation that drives ‘Chaos’ crazy. He said:
“I couldn’t even train. Pretty much had to run on the treadmill every day, that’s it. That’s not training timing, accuracy, all that. So I showed up with no camp, to save the UFC, to save the main event, to bring the First Family, to get the President tweeting about the UFC.
To get all the troops all over the world watching in their bases because I’m America’s and the troops’ favourite fighter [and] the UFC still doesn’t do good for me. I make them millions and millions and they just continue to just pocket all that money, and they don’t want to pay me a fraction — not even five per cent of any of that money. It’s ridiculous how they can pocket 95, 98 per cent and not give the fighters any more than the two or three per cent.”
Advantage
Basically, if the UFC can take advantage of you, it will. That’s the the way Covington sees it anyway.
“The UFC always makes promises, they’ve made me so many promises,” Covington continued. “Oh, do this and we’ll give you a favour here. We’ll throw you a bone next time.’ They never end up throwing that bone back, man. They just use you even more next time. So it’s just… I’m not going to be played for a fool anymore, man. They want to do business like that, then they’re not going to get any business. That’s that.”
No love lost.
