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Colby Covington was not happy about referee Marc Goddard’s stoppage call late in the fifth round at UFC 245.
Colby Covington was on a seven-fight win streak entering UFC 245 on Saturday. That was all snapped by a late-fifth round TKO loss to welterweight champion Kamaru Usman in their championship headliner.
“Chaos” was dropped twice by Usman’s right hands. After shooting in for a double-leg takedown which “The Nigerian Nightmare” easily sprawled, Covington covered up the left side of his head from the barrage of right hands coming his way. Seeing it as a non-intelligent way to defend, referee Marc Goddard stepped in to halt the fight at the 4:10 mark of round five.
Covington got up and protested the stoppage with his face bloodied up and his jaw apparently broken. He was no longer able to do an interview with Joe Rogan inside the Octagon after the fight, but he did release a tweet condemning Goddard for the call.
Normally people do their fucking in the bedroom, not the octagon @marcgoddard_uk! I go in there to kill or be killed. You robbed me of that. You robbed the people of a fair fight. You should be ashamed of yourself. Fake nut shot. Fake eye poke. Fake stoppage. Fake ref. #ufc245
— Colby Covington (@ColbyCovMMA) December 15, 2019
During the post-fight presser, UFC president Dana White was asked about his thoughts on Covington’s post-fight online rant. While he did agree with the stoppage, the two saw eye-to-eye on one thing.
“Positively a good stoppage, yeah,” White told members of the media.
“Fake eye poke? Apparently, he didn’t watch the replay. Nut shot? He’s right there. That was on the belt.”
Covington, who holds wins over formers champions Robbie Lawler and Rafael dos Anjos, now drops to a record of 15-2 (with seven wins by stoppage).