It’s safe to say UFC President Dana White isn’t feeling particularly sorry for Colby Covington after his top ranked welterweight was allegedly sucker punched by rival Jorge Masvidal outside of a Miami restaurant.
Covington, who beat Masvidal over five rounds at UFC 272 last month, reportedly suffered a broken tooth in the attack. Masvidal has since been charged with battery over the incident.
White was asked about the incident during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show recently. On that show White suggested that Covington, whose shtick is one of the most offensive and annoying of anyone’s on UFC roster, should have seen this all coming.
“I say this all the time, first of all, in no way shape or form do I ever condone violence in people, my guys fighting each other in the streets and shit like that,” White said (ht MMA Fighting). “But on the flip side, when you’re dealing with a guy like Jorge Masvidal and you start talking about his family, all these fighters — listen, say what you want to say about me, you hate me, you think I’m ugly, whatever my thing is, but when you start talking about people’s families it goes to a whole ‘nother level. You talk about people’s families and you’re walking out of a restaurant and you better be ready for a guy like Jorge Masvidal to run up on you.
“Is anybody shocked that he talked shit about his kids and his wife and you think that he’s not gonna do that? Of course he’s gonna do that.”
White continued on to say that Covington violated the so-called ‘man code’, something White has brought up before and seems to hold in high regards.
“You’ve got to understand these guys were actually friends and training partners so they know intimate details about each other, about each other’s lives, about each other’s families, and there’s something that’s called fucking man code. A lot of these young, goofy fucking dudes these days don’t know about it, but they need to learn about it.”
These comments from White continue his—and the UFC’s—trend of being inconsistent when it comes to fighters on the UFC roster being accused, arrested and even convicted of battery and other crimes.
On some occasions White has condemned fighters and authorized them being shown the door (see Luis Pena, Michael Graves and Will Chope). In other instances White has been mum on past criminal records (see Anthony Johnson) or flat-out misrepresented the details regarding a serious issue (see Greg Hardy). On occasion White has also announced that he and the promotion would simply “see how things play out”, like when Jon Jones was arrested for domestic battery last year.
About the author
