Colby
Covington can get on anyone’s nerves, and that includes
UFC welterweight champion Leon
Edwards.
Advertisement
Covington landed himself a title shot against Edwards at
UFC 296 in December 2023. Known for crossing limits with his
trash talk, Covington insulted Edwards’ late father at the
pre-fight press conference.
Edwards was admittedly affected by the comments but successfully
maintained his composure to put on a lopsided beating against
Covington en route to a unanimous decision victory. “Rocky”
revealed that he looked for Covington backstage immediately
following the press conference to slap him. However, the American
was nowhere to be found, potentially having been escorted out by
security personnel.
“Yeah [I looked for him backstage]. But they moved him, I don’t
know where he went but he weren’t backstage at all,” Edwards said
on “The MMA Hour.” “I feel like the security took
him away and I don’t know where they put him, but he was somewhere…
Slap him, that’s what I was looking to do. I feel like he’s not a
man. I feel like the way he talks and the way he says, he should be
able to really back it up inside and outside the cage. For me I
don’t think he’s a man, he’s a weasel.”
Despite barely surviving for five rounds against Edwards, Covington
bizarrely raised his hands at the end of the final bell. After the
decision was announced, Covington, a self-declared Donald Trump
fanatic, blamed the loss on the judges’ bias against his political
views.
Edwards noted that Covington is in the habit of blaming all of his
losses on external factors. Scheduled to defend his welterweight
title against Belal
Muhammad at
UFC 304 in Manchester on July 27, Edwards is expecting his
upcoming opponent to come up with excuses like Covington if he
loses.
“Colby is Colby, yeah? I feel like every time he loses, it’s
someone else’s fault. When he got knocked out by [Kamaru] Usman, it
was Marc
Goddard… It’s always someone else’s fault, it’s got nothing to
do with him… You lost clearly. I don’t get what Trump got to do
with it or anybody got to do with it. You lost a fight and that’s
it, learn from it, move on. For some reason [Covington] makes
excuses for his losses and pretends like he’s better than what he
is, and he ain’t. I think Belal [Muhammad] will be similar as well,
two weird people.”