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“If people were worried about words but we go in the Octagon to kill each other, don’t be so sensitive, snowflakes.”
Colby Covington just couldn’t help himself at UFC on ESPN 5.
As if beating former UFC welterweight champ Robbie Lawler to a pulp wasn’t enough, ‘Chaos’ took a dig at Lawler’s longtime friend and teammate Matt Hughes in his post-fight interview, making fun of Hughes’ near-fatal train collision in 2017.
“Let’s talk about the lesson we learned tonight that Robbie should have learned from his good buddy Matt Hughes,” Covington said. “You stay off the tracks when the train is coming through, junior.
“Doesn’t matter if it’s the Trump train or the Colby train, stay out the way.”
Hughes, 45, didn’t seem particularly bothered by Covington’s comments and Covington certainly doesn’t regret making them.
Speaking to reporters at a post-fight media scrum backstage at Newark’s Prudential Center, Covington refused to apologize for making fun of Hughes and berated the MMA community for being oversensitive ‘snowflakes’.
“Not at all,” Covington said when asked if he regrets his comments about Hughes’ train accident (h/t Alexander K. Lee of MMA Fighting). “Did I say something that was offensive? The guy’s done some pretty crappy stuff, he’s got lawsuits against his family, against his brother, I just said the truth, I’m honest. I’m a little bit brutally honest sometimes and people can’t handle it.
“If people were worried about words but we go in the Octagon to kill each other, don’t be so sensitive, snowflakes.”
Lawler, like Hughes, also didn’t make much of a fuss about Covington’s comments.
“I couldn’t even really hear what he said. Guys are crossing the line, it seems like the media loves it, they eat it up, so that’s for you guys to write about and have your own opinions on it,” Lawler said after the fight.
“It’s not for me to have an opinion, everyone wants to see what I have to say. What do you guys have to say about it? So it is what it is, I’m just worried about myself as usual.”
With his dominant unanimous decision win over ‘Ruthless’, Covington is expected to challenge Kamaru Usman for the official welterweight title sometime later this year. The two fighters got into a heated back-and-forth on the ESPN on 5 post-fight show, where Covington accused Usman of ducking him in the past.