British boxing promoter Eddie Hearn doesn’t care much for mixed martial arts, but even he has found himself emotionally invested in Leon Edwards’ showdown against Colby Covington at UFC 296.
On Thursday, Edwards and Covington took the stage alongside other members of the UFC 296 main card at a press event inside T-Mobile Arena. It didn’t take long for ‘Chaos’ to take over the festivities, delivering a series of jabs to his opponent and other panelists that fell within the range of light-hearted to semi-distasteful. However, Covington clearly crossed the line when he made an absolutely vile comment about Leon Edwards’ deceased father.
During one of the many back-and-forth exchanges between the pair, Covington took things to an unnecessarily personal level, drawing the ire of fans and media members alike.
“I’m bringing you to the seventh layer of hell,” Covington told Edwards, before adding: “We’ll say ‘What’s up’ to your dad while we’re there.”
Leon Edwards throws a bottle at Colby Covington after he mentioned his dad
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— FIGHTING LTD (@fighting_ltd) December 15, 2023
Edwards’ father was shot and killed in a London nightclub when the MMA star was just 13 years old. ‘Rocky’ has since said he believes the motive of the murderer was a dispute over money.
Understandably upset, Edwards chucked a bottle at Covington before the two fighters stood up from their seats. Security quickly intervened, preventing things from escalating further. While getting both fighters back to their chairs, Covington continued pandering to the pro-America crowd in his elementary-level cosplay.
Eddie Hearn Condemns Covington’s ‘Horrible’ comment
Speaking with IFL TV, Eddie Hearn condemned Covington’s press conference comments, saying:
“I don’t know anything about UFC, I’ve met Leon a couple of times, lovely fella — I hope he smashes that geezer to pieces tomorrow night. Like, how can you say that? I know you can get carried away, but you’ve got to have some kind of compassion. That’s a horrible thing to say.”
Do you agree with Eddie Hearn? Did Covington go too far, or is there simply nothing considered off-limits in the fight game anymore?
Colby Covington goes into his third shot at the welterweight world title having gone 2-2 in his last four outings dating back to 2019. During that run, ‘Chaos’ suffered losses against then-champion Kamaru Usman on two separate occasions while scoring wins over Tyron Woodley and Jorge Masvidal, two fighters who have since retired from the sport following a series of defeats.