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Colby
Covington had a night to remember on Saturday, when he
vanquished rival Tyron
Woodley via fifth-round technical knockout in the UFC Fight
Night 178 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Woodley suffered a rib injury 1:19 into Round 5, bringing an
anticlimactic end to a bitter rivalry between former American Top
Team members.
“He was done,” Covington said at the UFC Fight Night 178 post-fight
press conference. “I broke him. In the third round I broke him. He
quit. I put vicious ground and pound. He was done. He told his
coach he was done and he was looking for a way out. He knew I
trapped his arm and I was getting ready to put vicious
ground-and-pound on him and he took the easy way out. He would
rather be the spineless coward like he is. He’s a woke little f—k
and he got exposed tonight.”
While conducting an interview on the ESPN+ post-fight show,
Covington took a congratulatory phone call from United States
President Donald Trump. Covington recently attended Trump’s rally
in Henderson, Nevada, and previously visited the White House after
winning the UFC interim welterweight title in 2018. Covington put
Trump on speakerphone so those watching the post-fight show could
hear the call.
“You are a great fighter,” Trump said to Covington. “You make it
look so easy. I don’t know how you do it. Congratulations, I wanted
to watch that fight tonight. You were great.
“That was easy work, relatively easy work. I’m proud of you, man”
Trump added. “I just made a big speech, I had 35,000 people, I said
I want to get home now to watch Colby. That was fast work.”
“Thank you so much, Mr. President,” said Covington, who vowed to
bring the UFC belt to the White House in the future. “You gave me
the dragon energy when you shook my hand on Sunday at your rally.
It doesn’t matter if King Kong was in front of me, I was not going
to lose after getting to shake your hand.”
President Trump called @ColbyCovMMA
during the
#UFCVegas11 post show pic.twitter.com/FJsUMQV8Xk— ESPN MMA (@espnmma)
September 20, 2020
With his latest victory, Covington rebounded from a fifth-round TKO
loss to Kamaru
Usman in a title bout at UFC 245 this past December. A rematch
with Usman isn’t next on Covington’s hit list, however.
“Where’s Jorge
Masvidal at?” Covington said at the Saturday’s press
conference. “He needs to come see me for all the talking he’s done.
Come see if can walk the walk. I talk the talk and I walk the walk.
I want to see Jorge Masvidal in that octagon. … I want the best
friends turned enemy fight with ‘Street Judas’ Jorge Masvidal.
“He’s been talking all that talk reckless. He used to talk at the
old gym, ‘I’m going to beat your ass, I’m going to do this, I’m
going to do that.’ OK. Let’s see it. Come see me in the octagon
then. He’s going after that California soy-boy Nate Diaz
because he’s going after easy fights. I’m going to expose him like
I did Tyron
Woodley tonight.”
Like Woodley, Masvidal is a former training partner of Covington’s
at American Top Team. It’s unclear if Covington vs. Masvidal will
come to fruition, because the promotion is reportedly targeting a
rematch between “Gamebred” and Diaz in early 2020.
