There is nothing that I said or did which was racist: Colby Covington on UFC Vegas 11 backlash

There is nothing that I said or did which was racist: Colby Covington on UFC Vegas 11 backlash

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Colby Covington ranks at the top spot in Welterweight division behind Kamaru Usman

After the criticism faced by making racist remarks at the UFC Vegas’ 11 Post-Match interview, long time Trump supporter, Colby Covington defends himself. In conversation with Submission Radio, Covington stated that he did not say anything racist that might have had offended people to this extent. 

Colby Covington not just made headlines after beating Tyron Woodley at UFC Vegas 11. But also gathered some attention towards himself by making strong and controversial racist remarks on Kamaru Usman. Followed by thrashing down the Black Lives Matter movement, for which most of the American athletes are standing. 

The interview marked the first time Covington answered directly to charges of racism after a brief statement on his Instagram page where he wrote he speaks “for the silent majority” and he will “never back down.” 

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Covington defends himself after racist remarks 

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The controversy was sparked after Covington’s dominant win at UFC Vegas 11. During an interview at the post-fight show, he engaged in a war of words with reigning welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. After accepting a call from President Donald Trump early in the same interview, Covington made reference to Usman’s native country of Nigeria as the two traded insults. 

“Who did you get a call from?” Covington asked. “Did you get a call from freaking your little tribe? Did they give you some smoke signals for you? You’re a joke, Marty Fakenewsman!” 

Speaking with the media backstage, Covington was then asked about a derogatory post he made on social media where he blasted Woodley for wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt. He responding to every question with some variation of ‘Black Lives Matter’ during a media day. 

“The Black Lives Matter is a complete sham—it’s a joke,” Covington said. “They’re taking these people that are complete terrorists. They’re taking these people that are criminals. 

This led to many top ranked fighters like Israel Adesanya, Leon Edwards etc. Taking digs at Covington. 

During his appearance on Submission Radio, Covington took issue with how some members of the media went about getting reactions from fighters on the roster and more specifically, fighters not from the U.S. 

“Look at the people ‘the so-called MMA journalists’ are reporting on,” Covington said. “They’re asking a guy from London. Also asking a guy from Nigeria. They’re asking a guy from some other country. That’s not even American politics. They’re not asking people who are in America or know anything about America.” 

Interestingly several of the fighters who commented about Covington were asked for their reaction to his comments and the opinions of Adesanya and others were not concentrated around American politics. But whether his comments directed at Usman were racist. On that, several agreed they were.

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