Colby Covington apparently wasn’t at his best when he fought Kamaru Usman for the UFC welterweight championship this past December.
Covington headlined the UFC 245 pay-per-view (PPV) against Usman in what was a great back-and-forth bout. However, when it was all said and done, Usman picked up the fifth-round TKO win after breaking Covington’s jaw midway through the contest. It was surprising to many that neither Usman nor Covington attempted to wrestle during the fight, as they’re both extremely talented grapplers.
With that being said, Covington was recently a guest on the “It’s All About Who You Know” podcast to talk about the December loss, and revealed he was actually dealing with a bout of food poisoning before the contest. Covington noted the UFC was preparing his meals before the fight, and one of the meals actually made him very sick. He wasn’t feeling up to his full strength for the fight, which is why he decided not to wrestle. (H/T BJPenn.com)
“I’m not making excuses,” Covington said. “I haven’t really told anybody, but the UFC was preparing meals for me all fight week, and I ended up getting really sick of one of their meals. I think they didn’t cook the chicken very good, and I got food poisoning two nights before the fight. I puked like 30 times, literally like 30 times.”
Covington went on to say that he even considered pulling out of the fight given how sick he became. But after speaking with manager and American Top Team (ATT) owner Dan Lambert, Covington was convinced to stay in the fight, and very nearly won the title before being stopped late.
“I told my manager Dan Lambert ‘I’m going to have to pull out of the fight, man,’” Covington said. “He’s like ‘no, you can’t pull out man, you’re the main event. You can’t do this to the UFC, you just need to go through with it.’ I ended up going through with it, but I didn’t feel my best. That kind of played into the decision not to wrestle [in the fight] because I didn’t feel strong.
“It’s like I was holding back a little bit because I knew I was puking, my liver and intestines were all messed up and I wasn’t at full strength. So what I’m trying to say is I was on my worst day and ‘Marty Fake Newsman’ was on his best day and I still beat him. So you can imagine what’s going to happen in the rematch when I’m at my best and he’s at whatever level he’s at. It’s going to be a completely different outcome.”
In recent interviews, Covington has suggested he is seeking an immediate rematch with Usman for the title. “Chaos” is convinced that the officiating for the fight was poor, and the stoppage in the fifth round was premature. While it looks like the UFC is instead going in the direction of Jorge Masvidal vs. Kamaru Usman next, it will be interesting to see if Covington gets his wish.
What do you think about Covington’s claim that he had food poisoning before his fight with Usman?