Colby Covington believes Kamaru Usman altercation was orchestrated so he would lose his title shot
Colby Covington had quite an interesting weekend in Las Vegas capped off with a near brawl that almost broke out in the Palms Hotel and Casino buffet line.
As insane as that story sounds, it all actually happened as Covington was waiting in line for food and he ended up in a physical altercation with new UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, his manager Ali Abdelaziz and another member of his team.
Covington explained his side of the situation on Tuesday.
“I wanted some crab legs, waiting in line for crab legs and all of a sudden this f—king Sasquatch and Usman and Ali f—king run up on me, come barreling through, pushing f—king an old lady and children aside, which is hilarious because the night before ‘Snoozeman’s got his f—king child in this thing trying to play this good guy role,” Covington said when speaking to MMAWeekly. “We found out that’s a f—king lie. That’s f—king fake. At least I’m a f—king bad guy and I admit it. I’m a piece of s—t, I don’t give a f—k about anybody, I admit it but I don’t claim to be some f—king good guy and some nice guy that cares about children and wants to do better for the world.
“The guy comes barreling through, pushing older ladies, a pregnant lady — he pushed a pregnant lady to the side! I wish they got it all on tape. That’s why I wanted the Palms tape but I wasn’t going to press charges because if I press charges then ‘Snoozeman’ gets deported back to Nigeria and I don’t get a chance to whoop his ass in that Octagon. Ali, too, he can get deported back to whatever country he snitched on so they can give him the death sentence cause he deserves it after trying to tell me he’s going to kill me and shoot me in the middle of the f—king Palms Casino right outside the buffet line.”
Covington claims that Abdelaziz made several death threats towards him during the incident while the third member of their entourage was also getting physical towards him and his friends in line with him.
“What a complete joke. Putting innocent people, innocent children, women, pregnant women in line in danger. There’s no need for that,” Covington said. “I’m yelling at Usman ‘what the f—k are you doing, you dumb f—k. I’m going to beat your ass in the Octagon, save this s—t, why are you trying to f—king fight me in the middle of a Palms [buffet] line, what is this going to do? We’re professional fighters, we’re not street thugs. Stop conducting yourself like street thugs’.”
After the altercation took place, Covington says that the Palms Hotel and Casino reached out to him and asked him to leave the property while banning him for life.
He ended up flying home to Florida on Monday where the former interim champion was able to reflect on the incident and that’s why he believes Usman and his manager orchestrated the entire altercation in order to get him into trouble with the UFC.
“After I thought back and though about it all day, I know why they did that. They want me to lose my title shot,” Covington said. “They’re threatened. They know that Usman has no chance to beat me so they wanted me to do something irrational. They wanted me to take a swing on them and lose my shot at the title but it’s not going to happen. I’m here to make the welterweight division great again and I can’t do that if I’m swinging on someone in the public.
“Obviously, they came over trying to get me to lose my cool. They wanted me to throw a punch. They wanted me to jeopardize my chances at a world title fight. You see, Ali’s already trying to call for Ben Askren to fight Usman. Ben Askren wasn’t even impressive. He doesn’t even have a legit win in the UFC yet. Not one that the refs didn’t give him. So you see Ali, they had a plan, they wanted me to do something crazy that was going to f—k my title fight but I’m not going to do it. I am a bad guy but I’m a bad guy for hire. I leave this s—t in the Octagon. I’m just waiting. I’m counting down the days.”
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The disdain shared between the two fighters so obviously real so Covington is anxiously awaiting his chance to settle things with Usman once and for all inside the Octagon.
The UFC hasn’t reached out to Covington or his camp about scheduling the fight but he’s hoping for June or July, especially now that he’s convinced that Usman is perfectly healthy enough to fight sooner rather that later.
“What we found out with that incident, we found out that ‘Marty Snoozeman’s fake injury saying his foot’s all hurt, that’s all fake news,” Covington stated. “He was sprinting f—king to come and get me. Like I literally saw him sprint from the front of the Palms line to the middle of the line to me, he jumps over a rail, got right in my f—king face.
“He’s mighty fine to fight, we need to run this s—t quick cause I’m going to end his career.”
EXCLUSIVE: MMAWeekly's Damon Martin interviews Colby Covington
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