[MMA NEWS ARCHIVES]
UFC 268 headliner Colby Covington has become known for integrating politics into his athletic career, and this includes invoking the name of Adolf Hitler to describe his critics four years ago. The following article is published in its original, unaltered form, courtesy of the MMA News archives.
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 20, 2017, 3:37 PM]
Colby Covington believes that those criticizing his decision to press charges on former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum are promoting ‘fascist’ ideals
Following an altercation between the outspoken UFC welterweight contender and the Brazilian heavyweight, charges were brought against Werdum.
Covington, who has been relishing his role as an outspoken villain of late, allegedly received a lot of criticism for his decision to ‘snitch’ on his fellow fighter following the skirmish. According to “Chaos”, those who have reacted negatively to him going to the Police in Sydney as a result of the encounter are no better than the infamous Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Covington made the eye-brow raising comments while discussing the incident with Ariel Helwani on Monday’s episode of the MMA Hour:
“He [Werdum] was screaming these anti-gay slurs, shouting ‘I’m going to kill you’,” Colby claimed, despite being called out by some for his own use of homophobic slurs aimed towards Werdum. He threw it [a boomerang] and luckily I mostly dodged it because I have impeccable reflexes. They use boomerangs in Australia to hunt kangaroos, people are saying it isn’t a weapon – it is a weapon.
“All these people in the world saying ‘Oh, he’s a snitch, he went to the cops’. Yeah, you know you’re condoning violence because of free speech. You know what that’s called, Ariel? That’s called fascism. You know who else believed in fascism? Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.”
Australians have recently voted in favor of passing a bill legalizing marriage between same-sex couples, which made the homophobic remarks aimed at Werdum even more inappropriate. Covington acknowledged this, expressing regret for his use of slurs which may have caused offense to the LGBT community before making a joke claiming that he is against marriage in general and not just gay marriage:
“After that my head was messed up, I regret anything I said because I was a little concussed. He hit me in the face. I have no ill will towards the LGBT community. No disrespect to them, I believe marriage as a whole is a mistake, but that’s a whole other story.”
