It’s starting to feel like a familiar tale. Colby Covington talks trash, finds his way to the cusp of a title shot, then apparently pisses the UFC off in negotiations after demanding what they deem too much.
Covington recently defeated Robbie Lawler in an emphatic and impressive performance, only to reportedly find himself at odds with the UFC when he demanded more money to fight UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman in November. Now, with the promotion having given Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal the crowning position on the sought after Madison Square Garden card, Covington has apparently had enough of staying quiet.
“That’s how UFC does business, they do the bully tactics,” Covington said, speaking with BJPenn.com. “They do the slave labor negotiations. It’s sick man. They don’t want to pay any of the fighters because they want everybody to be poor, so they keep back coming back and fighting all the time, and fighting six times a year.”
According to Covington, his ability to draw in a certain type of eyeballs, as well as his willingness to accept a contest he wasn’t necessarily ready for means the UFC should be paying him more for his involvement.
“They said, ‘Oh, show up for the Robbie Lawler fight,’” Covington said. “And needless to say, Robbie was training for 12 weeks for that fight. He was getting ready for [Tyron] Woodley. . . So I showed up on four weeks’ notice, without a training camp because I got a nasty cut from a head butt in the first week in training camp. I couldn’t even train. Pretty much had to run on the treadmill every day, that’s it. That’s not training timing, accuracy, all that. So I showed up with no camp, to save the UFC, to save the main event, to bring the First Family, to get the President Tweeting about the UFC. To get all the troops all over the world watching in their bases because I’m America’s and the troops’ favorite fighter [and] the UFC still doesn’t do good for me.
“I make them millions and millions and they just continue to just pocket all that money, and they don’t want to pay me a fraction — not even five percent of any of that money. It’s ridiculous how they can pocket 95, 98 percent and not give the fighters anymore than the two or three percent.”
All in all, while he’s supposedly still in the running for a shot at Usman’s title, Covington isn’t doing the company any favours in the future.
“The UFC always makes promises, they’ve made me so many promises,” Covington said. “[They say] ‘Oh, do this and we’ll give you a favor here. We’ll throw you a bone next time.’ They never end up throwing that bone back, man. They just use you even more next time. So it’s just… I’m not going to be played for a fool anymore, man. They want to do business like that, then they’re not going to get any business. That’s that.”
