The way Colby Covington tells it, he was just another unappreciated face in the UFC crowd, a humble, hard-working fighter who simply couldn’t get no respect.
“Three fights ago, before I fought the No. 2 guy in the world, this guy named Demian Maia in Brazil, (UFC officials) had told my manager, Dan Lambert, that they weren’t going to re-sign me,” Covington told right wing commentator Candace Owens on her PragerU show. “They didn’t like my style. They didn’t like that I wasn’t entertaining — and this is before I really started to become an entertainer and understand the entertainment aspect of this business.”
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He wasn’t making much money (about $30,000 per fight, according to Covington). The UFC didn’t like him. Even his string of victories didn’t guarantee him a roster spot. He had to do something to improve his situation. But what?
You know where it goes from there. A lightbulb goes off over his head. That head gets covered by a MAGA hat. He gets the brilliant and totally original idea to antagonize the nation of Brazil for the sake of some cheap heat, and then he brings the act back home for all the “virgins and nerds” he’d triggered. And thus a star was born. That’s the way he tells it, anyway.
It’s fitting that even Covington’s own version of his personal creation myth feels like it was copied in a sloppy hand from The Book of Chael Sonnen. All this stuff, right down to the Brazil-baiting, is a poor counterfeit of Sonnen’s journey from UFC also-ran to pro wrestling-style heel. It’s just that, while Sonnen did it so well that you almost couldn’t help but like him even as he worked to make you hate him, Covington has blundered through it with such conspicuous artlessness that at this point he’s more punchline than villain.
Really, Covington has earned himself the worst of all worlds. Did he make people mad, especially in Brazil? Sure. And for his trouble he got death threats and a boomerang to the face, thanks to Fabricio Werdum.
@FabricioWerdum attacks @ColbyCovMMA with a boomerang outside the hotel for UFC Sydney! 😵 pic.twitter.com/MCadJmCaXu
— Dan Hangman Hooker (@danthehangman) November 16, 2017
Did he get the fame and the money that’s supposed to come with the hate? Eh, kind of. He got more money than before. He got a certain kind of fame, at least among the hyper-conservative fringe in American culture.
He also created a life for himself where he can’t stand in line at a Vegas buffet without fear of being accosted by his enemies. If Jorge Masvidal is to be believed, Covington has to get his meals through Uber Eats just to avoid the consequences of his own schtick during mealtime. Does it still count as laughing all the way to the bank if you have to look over your shoulder the whole way?
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And see, now that Covington (15-1) has finally gotten the prize he was after — a shot at the actual UFC welterweight title, opposite his buffet line nemesis in current champ Kamaru Usman (15-1), in Saturday’s UFC 245 pay-per-view headliner — the attempts to explain it all away as a means to an end have kicked into high gear. Even some of his teammates are helping out. As his American Top Team stablemate Gleison Tibau told MMA Fighting recently, the Covington behind closed doors is not as objectionable as the one he presents to us in public.
“Colby respects everybody and has always respected me,” Tibau said. “The things he says, he comes to me and other Brazilians afterwards and says he’s just doing it to make money. I understand it. (Antonio) ‘Bigfoot’ (Silva) took it personal. He’s very emotional. He got a bit upset. (He told me), ‘Tibau, how can you say nice things about a guy that talks so much crap about our country?’ I tell him, ‘Man, as far as I know, he’s just doing it to make money.’”
See? He didn’t mean it, you guys. He’s not actually a bad person. He just decided to present himself as one for the sake of personal gain. There, all better now?
As a defense of one’s unsavory actions, claiming you just did it for the money only gets you so far. Many people who do bad stuff are motivated by money. Simply explaining that they did it for financial gain and not solely for the sheer joy of making the world a worse place doesn’t typically get them off the hook. Doing stuff for money doesn’t instantly obscure your true character. It’s the opposite, in fact, because one of the things we learn about you is what exactly you’re willing to do for money.
Notice that, even in Covington’s own retelling, the first UFC complaint that he recounts is in relation to his fighting style. But he didn’t set out to change that part because, come on, that would require too drastic a change with accompanying risks that were obviously too great. Better and easier to just become the kind of guy others can’t stand, because at least disdain requires some type of emotional response.
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Which makes me wonder, does Colby Covington the human being think that Colby Covington the character is a bad person? When he’s calling Brazilians “animals” or telling Usman that his deceased former manager will be “watching from hell” when they fight, does he inwardly assure himself that the real Colby would never act this way? And even if the answer is yes, how many times do you have to go against your own ethical code for the hope of a reward before it doesn’t matter whether you would do it otherwise?
(Top photo: Josh Hedges / Zuffa)
