After Colby Covington defeated Robbie Lawler in the main event of UFC on ESPN 5 last Saturday (Aug. 3, 2019) in Newark, New Jersey (see it), his attention immediately shifted to Welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman.
That’s because “Chaos” earned the right to fight for the undisputed title against a man he’s not very fond off. And the tension between the two men once again was visible when they came within feet of each other at the ESPN broadcast booth. In fact, security had to step in to prevent it from getting out of hand.
One person who wasn’t impressed with the back-and-forth is ex-division champion Tyron Woodley. To hear him tell it, if fans criticized him for the things he said while he was champion, they have it worse now having to hear Colby and Kamaru trying to sell a fight.
“People were complaining when I was champion, but now look at what yall’s asses are dealing with. You got some terrible, whack-ass trash talk and you got Usman who is just not quick with it,” said Tyron during a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.
“So when he gets hit with the trash talk, his reply back just makes it even worse. He got drug into, you know how you see someone fight, and they fight a lesser opponent and you fight down to their level, that’s what happens when these two start talking trash,” he added.
Indeed, Colby and Usman have been selling this fight long before it came close to being a reality, as they have been involved in several face-to-face confrontations over the last year. But now that it’s getting close to actually seeing the light of day, Woodley dreads the leadup to the bout.
“I’m looking at it and, it’s kind of embarrassing for our division. Cringe worthy is not even the word. It’s scripted so, Colby, this is for you. You know I am not going to give you many words of wisdom, if you are going to keep scripting this, get in the mirror, I know it’s hard for you to read, but get in the mirror and try,” said the former champion.
“Go line by line and practice it with different emotions. Do one loud, one quite, give a pause to give people can applaud or boo. Practice it, don’t just get up there and (stutter), and say stupid stuff. So yes, it was definitely cringe-worthy, we don’t need it.”
Covington has done a good job at trying to become the next big heel in mixed martial arts (MMA), but even a veteran of the fight game and trash talk such as Michael Bisping isn’t impressed with the shtick.
Nevertheless, we will likely get to see if all of Covington’s antics help with PPV buys once the fight is in the history books