Last night, in the co-main event of the UFC’s exciting stop in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Colby Covington stepped into the ring with recent welterweight title challenger Demian Maia. Shortly after winning this fight via unanimous decision, Covington unleashed a fiery verbal onslaught at Tyron Woodley, referring to Brazil as a “dump” and its residents as “filthy animals” in the process.
Unsurprisingly, Covington’s remarks generated a wave of controversy – including some negative reactions from his teammates at American Top Team. And as it turns out, he could also find himself in some hot water with the UFC.
Speaking at the event’s post-fight press conference, UFC senior vice president David Shaw shared his disappointment with the way Covington spoke after his win.
“Overall, I thought the fan reactions throughout the course of the night were fantastic generally,” Shaw said (via MMAFighting.com). “Brazilian fans are obviously very intelligent, very knowledgeable about the sport, very scrutinizing, and generally it was loud and energetic and boisterous the whole time.
“In terms of the fan reactions with Covington fighting, there’s no way for us to support any fans throwing items at any staff or any fighters,” Shaw continued. “However, having said that, we are taking the situation with Covington very seriously. It’s already being reviewed by our code of conduct committee and it’s something that we are not very happy about.”
“It’s not for me to say at this point what could possibly happen, but we’ll be reviewing it over the course of the weekend and early next week.”
With his win over Maia, Colby Covington extended his win-streak to five-straight. This streak is highlighted by wins over Bryan Barberena, Dong Hyun Kim, and of course, Maia.
What did you think of his post-fight remarks? Join the debate in the comments section!
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/29/2017.