UFC RIVALS RIP EACH OTHER IN FINAL FACE-OFF
IN the end, it was the champ who broke first.
Could you blame him? Probably not.
Yet, as Kamaru Usman, the UFC welterweight king, company’s No.1 pound-for-pound fighter, and a man edging closer to greatest of all time status stared down rival Colby Covington in New York, it was he who quit on protocol and shoved his outspoken rival backwards.
Cue madness.
“You’re dead motherf--ker,” shouted Covington, who had arrived for the UFC 268 press conference decked out in a suit coloured pink, blue and paired with giant chain, gold sunglasses and no shirt.
“You’re gunna die. You are never going to fight again.”
Which is some statement, sure.
Yet earlier, with microphone in hand? Depending on your take, it was better – or worse – again.
With the lippy American challenger, a fella who has waited two years for Sunday’s rematch (AEST), not only spouting his usual rhetoric about the champ being a coward, a drug cheat and fake, but also taking aim at Usman’s father, Muhammad – who served 10 years in prison for multiple counts of health care fraud.
“Hey Marty, is your daddy the jailbird coming on Saturday night?” Covington shouted.
“Breathe,” the champ replied. But Covington, he didn’t. Not for all 40 minutes this thing went.
“Do you want me to call his parole officer and make sure he can come along?” he said.
“Do you want me to make sure? “I feel so bad for Mrs Usman. “Think about it. She’s got a cheating arse son, she’s got a scammer arse husband, it must be s---ty in that household.”
At which point, Usman reminded his rival about breaking his jaw – a claim Covington has continually denied – when the pair first fought for the UFC title two years ago.
“What?” he said. “The only thing broken was you broke your daddy out of jail.”
At one point, Usman was asked to size the real estate he now owned in Covington’s head.
“I’ve been living up there, taking a s--t up there, pissing up there in his head,” the champ said laughing.
“And Saturday night (Sunday AEST), I’ll separate him from his consciousness.”