A whole lot happened between UFC Sydney headliner Fabricio Werdum and welterweight contender Colby Covington.
Fabricio Werdum and Colby Covington have developed separate histories of getting into public confrontations, so it was only a matter of time before they clashed with each other, and that’s what happened in Sydney, Australia.
Werdum, who is scheduled to headline this Saturday’s Fight Night card against Marcin Tybura, was caught on video throwing a boomerang at Covington during a face-to-face encounter outside the fighters’ hotel. I am not making that up, and here’s the footage from UFC lightweight Dan Hooker.
@FabricioWerdum attacks @ColbyCovMMA with a boomerang outside the hotel for UFC Sydney! pic.twitter.com/MCadJmCaXu
— Dan Hangman Hooker (@danthehangman) November 16, 2017
Just over one month ago, Werdum got into it with current UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson at a media luncheon, and called Ferguson a gay slur on multiple occasions during the verbal back-and-forth. The UFC responded by saying that they were disappointed in Werdum, and that he would do “community outreach within the LGBTQ community in Las Vegas.”
The Werdum vs. Covington squabble continued with the American going off on the former heavyweight champion, and Colby filmed it on his phone. Here’s video of that incident:
“Look at this f-cking clown!” Covington said. “You’re a f-cking clown, Fabricio Werdum! You just punched me in the face, you want to come punch me again b-tch? What? What? Yeah you think you’re so tough. Look at you, f-cking f-ggot. That’s right, yeah you little b-tch. Hey, I’mma see you soon motherf-cker. Hey, you’re old motherf-cker, you ain’t sh-t!
“F-ck Brazil. F-ck Fabricio Werdum, little bitch ass. F-ck Brazil. A bunch of filthy animals. And they wonder why they get talked to like that, because they’re a bunch of animals.”
The UFC has since released the following statement to MMA Fighting:
“UFC was made aware of the altercation between Fabricio Werdum and Colby Covington at the organization’s host hotel in Sydney, Australia. The organization will conduct a full investigation to determine if the Athlete Conduct Policy was violated before taking any further action on this matter.”
Werdum later spoke to FloCombat about what transpired, and alleged that Covington kicked him on the leg:
“This guy is really audacious,” Werdum told FloCombat. “I went down with my master [Rafael Cordeiro]: ‘Master, let’s get a hair cut and shave the beard”. We were in the lobby, and I’ve never seen this guy before. When I walked he looked at me and said: ‘Brazilian animals’. And I was like: ‘Hey’. I slapped his phone and asked: “What did you say?” Then, he kicked my leg, but I managed to defend. Then the guys got in the middle and had nothing left. But he kicked me, he is audacious. I could have hurt myself.
“I don’t know why he insists on this mistake of speaking of the Brazilians… I didn’t understand. […] He wants media, wants to imitate Conor McGregor. He looks like ridiculous the way he does. I didn’t believe when he said it. I didn’t believe it. I slapped his phone and he stepped back and kicked me. Then we were arguing, and he kept shouting that Brazilians were animals”
“If I had hit him in the face, he would be in the hospital. Certainly. There was no punch, he’s crazy.”
Covington has come under fire for his repeated disparaging marks about the country of Brazil and Brazilians as a whole. When he defeated Demian Maia by unanimous decision at UFC Sao Paulo, Covington called Brazil a “dump” in the post-fight interview, as the crowd jeered him and hurled trash in his direction as he exited the arena. Now he’s embroiled in another controversy, this time with a fighter who is no stranger to controversy himself.