Despite Colby Covington’s apparent best efforts to make himself Public Enemy No. 1 in Brazil, there’s at least one prominent Brazilian in the fight game who claims to have no beef with him.
Covington made headlines and ruffled feathers after his fight against Demian Maia in Sao Paulo last October, referring to the natives of his host country as “filthy animals”. Covington had to be escorted out of his hotel building in Brazil by armed security when he left due to his comments.
As a result of those comments towards the people of Brazil, there had been rumors that the Brazilians at his gym at American Top Team in Florida, including Amanda Nunes and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, didn’t take kindly to the insults directed towards their homeland.
However, longtime UFC lightweight contender Edson Barboza, who also trains at ATT, spoke to reporters after his recent win over Dan Hooker and said he doesn’t have an issue with the way “Chaos” conducts himself (courtesy of MMA Junkie):
“I never train with him because he’s in a different division, and ATT has 1,000 guys for every division,” Barboza said. “I never have an opportunity to train with him. I’ve seen him a couple times — he trains a lot. But I never had the opportunity to train with him.
“I really don’t worry about what he said. He doesn’t know Brazil. He tries to promote. But I know he’s about the fight — he’s a great fighter. I respect him. He does his job. If he thinks it’s good to talk like that and it’s good for him, it’s hard for me to say anything about him.”