Colby Covington has quickly become the new heel fight fans love to hate in mixed martial arts (MMA), especially in the country of Brazil.
Indeed, no one has been safe from “Chaos’s” insults, which have even pissed off some of his current teammates at American Top Team (ATT). In fact, even retired fighters-turned broadcaster can get it, as Covington recently got into a Twitter beef with Kenny Florian.
While “Ken-Flo” didn’t back down, he says he can respect the marketing side of what Colby is doing, but feels he needs to find a balance like those before him.
“I definitely respect the marketing aspect of it, right?” Florian told Submission Radio via Bloody Elbow. “I think you can be confident and you can call out guys, you could say certain things, I think there’s just a certain level of respect. I think that when you start getting into like the bully-type mentality and you start really insulting, when you’re using things like gay slurs, when you’re using racist remarks, when you’re insulting countries and groups of people, that’s too much. We have enough of that going on in the world. And I think like we should kind of show a much more respectful side. That’s myself and that’s what I think,” he added.
Chael Sonnen wrote the book on talking trash, but “The American Gangster” sill had legions of fans that adored him and his biggest haters didn’t send him death threats. As far as Covington is concerned, Florian isn’t convinced he can follow suit.
“It’s possible. I mean, probably not likely,” Florian responded to the idea that Covington could become a fan favorite. “But I think Chael had a certain charisma about him and I think he had a certain wittiness about him, whereas Colby’s just… there’s not a whole lot of, I don’t know if there’s a whole lot of slickness to what he’s saying. It kind of just sounds like an angry 15-year-old, you know what I mean? Chael at least had knowledge of how to play the heel in a relatively intelligent way,” he concluded.
As far as the fight game itself is concerned, Covington has shot up as one of the front-runners to get he next title shot against Tyron Woodley after going on a hot streak, including defeating Demian Maia in his last outing.