Dana White knew that the trash talk between bitter rivals Colby Covington and Tyron Woodley could get ugly in the lead-up to their fight at UFC Vegas 11.
After all, ‘Chaos’ and ‘The Chosen One’ have had a heated rivalry for years now, and thus one could only anticipate that things would boil over during fight week.
White’s hypothesis proved correct, as Woodley stated he planned on fouling Covington in the groin at some point during their fight, while Colby referred to Tyron as being a “domestic terrorist sympathizer” for his support of Black Lives Matter.
Although some controversial comments were made by both sides, Dana White did not feel any lines were crossed in the pre-fight exchanges between Colby Covington and Tyron Woodley.
“One of the things we’ve never done here in the UFC is stop people from expressing how they feel about certain things inside or outside the Octagon,” White told reporters at last night’s UFC Vegas 11 post-fight press conference (via BloodyElbow). “Even if it’s me. If it’s about me. Who’s more about free speech than we are? We literally let our people do or say whatever it is they do. It’s normal.”
Dana White continued:
“Everything that happened this week, I f*cking saw it coming a hundred miles away. I could write the entire script for you, what would’ve happened at that press conference. You guys know it too. Plus, you heard everything already. You heard all the talk. These guys wanted to fight, they hate each other, the whole deal.”
Colby Covington would go on to defeat Tyron Woodley by way of fifth round TKO in last night’s UFC Vegas 11 headliner. Despite the definitive result, ‘Chaos’ still continued to go off on ‘T-Wood’ during last night’s presser (see that here).
While Covington’s comments were deemed controversial by many, Dana White is not about to start telling his fighters what they should or should not say.
“My point in saying that is we’ve never stopped anybody from expressing themselves and saying how they feel,” White explained. “My philosophy is always this is a fight. People are gonna say mean sh-t to each other. It’s like, ‘they shouldn’t be allowed to say that.’ They’re gonna f—ng punch each other in the face tomorrow. This is the fight game. I don’t believe in all that.”
What do you think of Dana White’s response to the controversial comments made by Colby Covington in the lead-up to his fight with Tyron Woodley? Share your thoughts in the comments section PENN Nation!
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on September 20, 2020