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Michael Bisping didn’t need to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame before people started recognizing his place as one of the best mixed martial arts heels ever. For years he played the role of cocky smug pr**k down to a T, probably because that’s a part of who he really is and combat sports is the perfect place to play it up. Not only can it give you an advantage with your opponent, it also raises your stature in a sport that requires a good amount of self-promotion to differentiate yourself from the crowd.
Enter Colby Covington, who didn’t get much attention after his first few UFC wins. So he decided to go full heel and turn the volume on it up to 11. At this point he’s one of the most divisive figures in combat sports, and it’s only fitting then that he’s added a love of U.S. president Donald Trump to the whole endeavor in order to own the libs.
But heels know heels, and as far as Michael Bisping is concerned, something is off about Covington.
“I mean we talk about Henry Cejudo being the king of cringe,” he said on his podcast Believe You Me (via BJPenn.com). “‘Triple C’ and all that stuff but no, Covington is. He’s there, he’s posing with the girls in the hot tub. He’s doing all these types of things, he’s wearing the MAGA hat all the time with the shades. It’s all a little bit forced. Of course he’s taking a leaf out of the Chael Sonnen playbook. He’s trying to do that whole thing. He’s trying to replicate it, but for me it just looks a little bit forced.”
“I will say this, in the cage he’s a formidable man. He’s very, very good. The results speak for themselves. He’s beaten some really, really good competition but the whole shtick it just doesn’t seem authentic and when it’s not authentic that’s when I kinda have a problem with it.”
We hear you, Bisping. There is just something about Colby’s act that makes us all call it an act. A shtick. A performance. I don’t think anyone would be surprised if 15 years from now he admitted he wasn’t into any of the stuff he was peddling, and it was all an elaborate troll. And you know what? That’d be pretty great, because it’d mean all the Trump family members showing up because Covington is hawking their hats and slogans are getting trolled along with the rest of us.