Covington Releases Statement After UFC 245 Loss: ‘Fake Stoppage, Fake Ref’

Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

Things did not go according to plan for Colby Covington at UFC 245.

That was abundantly clear between the third and fourth rounds when Covington told his corner that he thought his jaw was broken. UFC would later release a statement confirming Covington had “suffered a non-displaced midline mandible fracture,” and it was this fracture that led to Kamaru Usman to a technical knockout victory with just 50 seconds left in the fifth and final round (watch the highlights here).

“The Nigerian Nightmare” dropped Covington twice with shots right to the chin and then started unloading with ground and pound that forced “Chaos” to cover up. That’s when referee Marc Goddard stepped in, stealing Covington’s win right out from under him.

At least that’s how Covington sees things.

”Normally people do their f**king in the bedroom, not the octagon, Marc Goddard!” Covington wrote on Twitter hours after the fight. “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.”

He shared a variation on the same theme through his Instagram account, too:

”Just a kid from Oregon chasing the American Dream,” he wrote. “Working hard and earning everything in my life the hard way since day one. I put myself out there in front of the world to kill or be killed. Marc Godard robbed me tonight with piss poor officiating. He let my opponent fake injuries for extra time and stopped the fight early. Just like America, my will and spirit can never be broken. Speed bumps can’t slow me down. You people ain’t seen nothing yet.”

There’s quite a bit of debate on what would be an appropriate scoring for the first four rounds, perfectly encapsulated by the official judges scorecards that read 48-46 Usman, 48-46 Covington, and 47-47 even. With Usman knocking down Covington repeatedly in the round five, you’d hope he’d take that round on all three scorecards earning him a majority victory. So the only thing Marc Goddard stole from Covington was the possibility of losing by decision instead of technical knockout.

We’re not surprised Covington has decided he was robbed, but it’s still a little disappointing that he won’t drop the over the top persona even for a minute. The guy I saw in the cage that fought with a broken jaw for two rounds was impressive. He could have walked away from that fight having gained respect from a lot of fans. Instead he pulled a runner immediately after the official result was read and then went right back to the intentionally obnoxious Covington act so many of us have grown to loathe over the past two years.

Fair enough, that act has taken him from Nowheresville right to the edge of a UFC title. Where it will go moving forward? I guess we’ll be forced to find out, because it doesn’t look like Colby Covington plans to change any time soon.