Covington: I’m in a ‘f@$%king dick flexing’ competition with the UFC
Colby Covington: “This is a f@$%ing dick flexing competition and a muscle-flexing competition. That’s all it is.”
UFC middleweight Tyron Woodley was injured, and when Colby Covington won the interim title with a unanimous decision vs. Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 225, a unification fight seemed inevitable. However, Covington was nursing some injuries so Woodley’s next defense was a victory against Darren Till, and the interim title was stripped, but a fight with Covington still appeared natural. However, Kamaru Usman put together a 13-fight win streak capped with a dominating performance vs. Rafael dos Anjos at The Ultimate Fighter 28 Finale on November 28, and UFC president Dana White determined Woodley vs. ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ was next.
Covington had been promised a title shot, and when it was removed, he lashed out at UFC president Dana White, in repeated interviews. That lashing continues in an interview with BJ Penn Radio, and Covington now says he is doing it not just for himself, but for all fighters who don’t have a platform.
I haven’t heard anything from them and I don’t got anything to say to them, said Covington, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. They know where I stand and they’re not going to get anything out of me ’cause I’m standing my ground, I’m standing up for all the fighters that don’t have a f***ing platform, that can’t stand up against the UFC and have to take everything the UFC gives them. All the s***the UFC gives them, f***s all the fighters on the pay and just expects you to do things on a drop of a dime when they want it. All these fighters are yes-men, I’m not a yes-man. I don’t do things. When the UFC says to jump I don’t say ‘how high?’ I’m not that guy.
The UFC knows where I stand and I’m standing up for what’s right. People can hate me, they can love me, but you know I’m standing up for what I believe in and what I earned and was promised. In life, you can only stand by your word and you gotta have big balls in life and that’s what I got.
A lot of these fighters, they’re scared, they’re not gonna do that. So if I’m a one-man army, that’s cool. I don’t give a shit. I’m a self-made man. I never relied on the UFC for anything. I did this all on my own. I called my own shots, I got myself to the White House. …
[This is] just really a, ‘I don’t give a f*** to them. I’m putting the birds up and that’s it. This is a f***ing dick flexing competition and a muscle-flexing competition. That’s all it is. They’re trying to think that they have the power but they don’t have the f***ing power. Any other fighter, okay, yeah, you have the power. But in my situation – where I won a UFC title, the highest honor in your company, I went to the White House, the only fighter ever to do that, I’m undefeated, I’ve never been beaten, no one can touch me – they can’t f***ing outflex me. I can go somewhere else. I could give a f*** about them. They don’t mean s*** to me anymore. I know my worth. I know I’m valuable and they know I’m valuable. They’re not gonna do s***. I can say whatever I want and I’m gonna do whatever the f*** I want..
They can try and freeze me out, try and do whatever they want, but [my manager] Dan Lambert’s one of the richest, most powerful people in the world, so you can’t keep that guy down. It’s impossible. So we will rise up and we will be back, mark my words.