Colby Covington tried to drag Dustin Poirier’s name through the mud, only for his attempt to backfire on him.
We’re a few days away from UFC 264, and here’s Colby Covington trying to stir up some trouble. A while back, “Chaos” did an interview with MMA Junkie where he showed a video to reporter Mike Bohn, supposedly of Dustin Poirier dropping an “amateur” during sparring.
Covington said it happened during “The Diamond’s” training camp for his 2019 title fight against then-champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 242. His objective for sharing the video was to expose Poirier for being a “fake nice guy.”
Everybody thinks Dustin is this nice guy, this charitable guy… Dustin is not a nice, charitable guy. That guy is a piece of shit person.
This is an amateur, by the way. No headgear, he was going training with him. He’s rubbing it in the kid’s face after he drops him. What’s nice and honorable and charitable about that? You just dropped an amateur who came to help you train for Khabib, which why are you training with amateurs when you’re getting ready for Khabib, as it is?
You could’ve trained with me, and you could’ve had the opportunity to train with the best welterweight and the best cardio freak and wrestler in the gym at the time? But you chose to train with amateurs and then you’re supposed to be this good guy, but you’re not knocking out amateurs and you’re yelling in their face, ‘And new!’? That’s not Khabib, kid. You didn’t just knock out Khabib. What are you saying and new for?
Dustin’s a prick, he’s a piece of shit, and I’m sick of this fake nice guy act, that he’s such this nice guy and he’s all about charity when we know his charity is a tax write-off.
Covington finally shared this video to the public, conveniently timing it as Poirier is deep into fight week.
The guy wearing full nerf gear head to toe to protect his face and his feelings is Poirier. The guy with no headgear, wrestling credentials or brain cells left is “khabib.” @DustinPoirier Good guy? Bad guy? You be the judge ??? #AndNew #UFC264 pic.twitter.com/EMMFwC2b4E
— Colby Covington (@ColbyCovMMA) July 6, 2021
But what he thought would be a successful smear campaign ended up backfiring on him. Fellow fighters immediately sided with Poirier, while also blasting Covington for his little exposé.
Yes, people get submitted, dropped, hurt, injured and KO’ed in sparring sometimes. I shouldn’t be shocked that some people are shocked but here we are in 2021. ???
— Kenny Florian (@kennyflorian) July 6, 2021
First and foremost, what a professional backing off, secondly, headgear is a CHOICE. show me a video where Poirier is telling/forcing his sparring partner to NOT wear head gear, then he’d be a douche. https://t.co/g8O7X5oGcn
— Marina Shafir (@MarinaShafir) July 6, 2021
Why don’t you post the video of @DustinPoirier dropping you with a body shot? Always hating on people with power #supernecessary
— Jorge Masvidal UFC (@GamebredFighter) July 6, 2021
Anybody who thinks Dustin did anything wrong in the sparring video has never spent time in a gym before ha.
— ike vallie-flagg (@IKEVF) July 6, 2021
Also, if Colby put this out with malice he’s more of a dick than Dustin ever could be for being being in the middle of a round and clipping a guy. Your either snitching on Dustin or trying to make the other guy look like shit. Both are bad looks.
— ike vallie-flagg (@IKEVF) July 6, 2021
Shortly after the video made its rounds, Poirier spoke up to clarify things from his end.
“That was a professional fighter,” he told UFC Arabia’s Farah Hannoun. “I mean, that’s what happens in gyms during hard sparring, real sparring. There’s times when you drill, and train, and stuff like that, but there’s times where you hard spar and that was a hard sparring session.”
Well, he wasn’t lying. The other fighter in the video, Felipe “Buakaw” Douglas, is far from being an amateur. The 29-year-old Brazilian lightweight holds a record of 18-5 and most notably fought under the Titan FC banner.
He, too, defended Poirier, including the “celebration” that Covington pointed out.
“It was an intense sparring session, and things like that can happen in sparring,” Douglas told MMA Fighting. “There are some people saying I wasn’t wearing gear, but there was no reason to wear training gear, because Dustin trains well, he’s not mean. He hits hard like a fight and caught me and knocked me down. The cornerman took me off the cage and didn’t let me go back.
“As far as his celebration, people saying he was making fun – that’s the mindset of a guy that is fighting for a belt. I didn’t consider it disrespectful. I don’t do it, but that’s his mindset, envisioning the fight. He was about to fight for the belt, that’s his life.”
Poirier will face Conor McGregor for the third time this weekend at UFC 264. It takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.