Chael Sonnen is a big supporter of Colby Covington and believes other fighters are catching on to his act.
Covington has made a name for himself in the UFC welterweight division not only for his actions inside of the Octagon but for what he says out of it through interviews and social media. Ironically, this is what Sonnen did to make a name for himself while at the peak of his career but it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering that the two fighters are good friends and Covington took the same path that Sonnen did in his amateur wrestling days all the way up to his pro-MMA career.
Sonnen recently spoke with Luke Thomas about various topics as well as Covington’s abrupt rise from the prelims to the co-main event of a recent UFC pay-per-view event and how Covington’s methods may very well be the future of MMA due to the fact that we are currently in the entertainment era of the sport.
“In many ways, he’s going to reinvent the sport,” Sonnen said Monday on The MMA Hour (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “Is that for better or worse? Time will tell, and then you can decide. But people are going to start copying him. He’s the first guy ever to come out and say, ‘I’m just here to entertain you.’ So, yes, it’s an act, and yes, it’s a performance, but here it is and you guys seem to enjoy it. He’s the first guy. The only guy who ever did that in wrestling was The Rock. Everybody else stayed in character and held the old kayfabe montage.
“But he’s the first guy to come out and go, ‘Look, I’m just looking to entertain you. If the UFC isn’t going to bring me cameras, I’ll hire my own production crew, I’ll pay them, but I’m going to get this content recorded and out to the masses.’
“They’re scripted promos,” Sonnen continued. “He’ll admit they’re scripted promos — another thing that only The Rock would do, nobody else would ever admit to. And I think that he’s having fun. Now, I’ve known him since he was 11 years old — it’s going to be very hard for him to do anything that upsets me, because I just understand it a little bit differently. But I do think we’re going to see guys start to copy him. I think he’s an innovator in many ways. And again, is that a good thing or a bad thing? We’ll find out. But he does get credit, from me at least, for coming in and changing it. He is the first guy I’ve ever seen who has hired his own camera companies to come and go, ‘Hey UFC, you’re not going to do this for me? Great, no problem. I got some money, I’ll make a phone call. I’ll set the shot up myself.’ I think it’s interesting and it’s clearly working.”
Covington earned the interim welterweight title after being able to score a decision win over former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos in the co-main event of the main card for UFC 225 pay-per-view event at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois and is expected to challenge Tyron Woodley for the UFC welterweight title later this year.
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