UFC supervillain Colby Covington claimed he was the victim of an early referee stoppage in his fifth-round TKO defeat to Kamaru Usman in their welterweight title slugfest at UFC 245 in Las Vegas.
With the clock ticking down in the fifth round of a pulsating fight, welterweight champion Usman dropped Covington twice in quick succession, the latter time swarming him with a salvo of ground strikes that forced referee Marc Goddard to end the contest with 50 seconds remaining.
Despite most observers believing Usman would have taken the decision had the fight gone the distance anyway, the judges’ scorecards later showed it may have been headed to a split decision, with one having Kamaru 3-1 up, the other scoring it 2-2, and one having Covington 3-1 ahead.
But the brash American – who claimed to his corner during the fight that he had broken his jaw, which was later revealed to be the case – took to social media to call out Goddard for what he felt had been a premature end to proceedings.
“Normally people do their f*cking in the bedroom, not the octagon @marcgoggard_uk!” Covington fumed.
“I go in there to kill or be killed. You robbed me of that. You robbed the people of a fair fight. You should be ashamed of yourself. Fake nut shot. Fake eye poke. Fake stoppage. Fake ref. #ufc245”
Normally people do their fucking in the bedroom, not the octagon @marcgoddard_uk! I go in there to kill or be killed. You robbed me of that. You robbed the people of a fair fight. You should be ashamed of yourself. Fake nut shot. Fake eye poke. Fake stoppage. Fake ref. #ufc245
In bringing up the ‘fake news’ mantra, ‘Chaos’ was taking a leaf out of the book of one of his biggest supporters, US President Donald Trump.
Covington has loudly and frequently proclaimed his love of the Trump family, often donning a ‘MAGA’ hat for press appearances.
His defeat to Nigerian-born Usman snapped a seven-fight win streak and, despite Covington’s protestations of an unfair stoppage, most observers would agree he was beaten by the better fighter – although he played his part in wild bout that exceeded expectations on the UFC's last numbered card of the year.
Covington later posted a message on Instagram vowing: “Just like America, my will and spirit can never be broken. You people ain’t seen nothing yet.”
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