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Who the hell hates on Miesha Tate?
That was the question many of us had back in 2011 when an up and coming firebrand named Ronda Rousey started attacking the then-Strikeforce women’s champion, kicking off a feud that would last through two fights, a dislocated elbow, and a full season of The Ultimate Fighter. And throughout it all, Miesha seemed like the reasonable person responding to the insane vitriol thrown her way by Rousey.
This isn’t to pretend Tate is a perfect person who’s never done or said anything wrong. Just that she’s an odd target for a full sized hate-on by anyone. But of course that’s never stopped UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington before, so guess who just picked a fight with Tate on her Sirius XM show?
Covington was on Sirius XM Fight Nation Wednesday night to talk about his dominating five round decision win over Robbie Lawler at UFC Newark (watch the highlights here), but in traditional “Chaos” fashion he quickly turned the interview into another opportunity to talk crap and troll fans. When asked about his decision to mock Matt Hughes during his post-fight victory speech, he turned things around and started going in on Tate by accusing her of trashing him behind his back.
“It gets back to me,” Covington said (via MMA Junkie). “All the people say how (you say) negative thoughts about me, and how I’m this and that. I just think it’s very hypocritical, because I don’t think you’re a perfect person. You might have some skeletons in your closet, as well.”
Covington went on to say Tate was only famous for “losing to my girl Ronda Rousey” and “putting pictures on the internet.” That last bit was a low blow — Tate was a repeat victim of hackers who released a huge collection of celebrity nude photos stolen off poorly set up iCloud servers.
“I don’t even know what to say right now,” Tate replied. “It’s kind of crazy that you would go on that level just because I have an opinion, that you as an American should have respect for the fact that at least I have the balls to say it to your face, and that’s my opinion, and I’m entitled to it. I did not put you down as a person. You put me down as a person.”
“I’m not going to sugarcoat things,” Covington said. “I’m telling you how it is because I’m a real person. I’m not going to act like I’m not going to talk about it, when hey, you guys want to talk about me, here I am to defend myself.”
Shortly after, co-host Ryan McKinnell declared they’d never have Covington back on the show. And thus far neither McKinnell or Tate seem interested in sharing the Colby interview for clicks and views. Since the incident, Tate has deleted all mention of Covington appearing on the show from her Twitter account and the audio from the incident remains buried and unshared on the official Siruis XM Fight Nation account.
Just another day, another bridge burnt in the world of Colby Covington.