Michelle Obama famously said when they go low, we go high, but that message definitely didn’t reach UFC welterweight Colby Covington. “Chaos” has realized the value of controversy from the beginning of his UFC career, but he hit an all-time low in the lead-up to his UFC 296 title fight against current champion Leon “Rocky” Edwards.
During the press conference, Covington took his crass version of fight hype to the gutter when he disrespected his opponent’s dead father.
“On Saturday night, I’m going to bring you to a place you never want to be,” Covington shouted at Edwards. “I’m going to bring you to the seventh level of hell. We’ll say what’s up to your dad while we’re there.”
Immediately, Edwards threw a water bottle at Covington and tried to rush him before security stepped in to stop a potential melee. Covington knows the tragedy that hit the Edwards family, and using it to sell their beef is out of bounds.
Tragedy, Not Trash Talk
When Edwards was 13, his father was murdered in Birmingham, England. Edwards grew up in Jamaica, but the family moved to England for a better life. However, his father was shot and killed in a nightclub over what Edwards believes was a dispute about money.
“It was probably like 2 a.m.,” Edwards said to the Daily Mail in 2022 after he defeated Kamaru Usman to become a champion. “I was in my room. Mum was in her room. We hear the phone ringing. I heard her crying, and I knew from then something bad, you know.
“Eventually, she came into my room and just told me this, your dad’s just got killed in London. It was something to do with money. I don’t know what exactly. It was some mad s***, but I knew that it could happen.”
Leon’s father was involved in crime, and Leon as a young teenager got into gang life. His mother introduced him to mixed martial arts to keep him out of the streets, and Leon took it all the way to becoming a UFC champion.
Covington has run the gamut in his fights, calling Brazilians “filthy animals” and bringing his MAGA Donald Trump-loving rhetoric to the UFC and making it his signature shtick.
His presence and the depths that he will go to sell a fight are what makes the UFC a sideshow, but this is the same company that owns Power Slap, so what else can be expected?
