By Zack Linly
At this point, MMA fighter Colby Covington’s entire identity appears to revolve around his raging man crush on former President Donald Trump. He’s like a pro wrestler with a scripted MAGA persona. He’s a character—and not even a well-written one.
Years ago, Covington had a whole meltdown over NFL players opting not to visit with Trump at the White House—because how dare they not accept an invite from a politician they don’t like? How dare that not like him? HOW DARE THEY NOT JOIN COVINGTON IN BEGGING TO SIT ON MAGA CLAUS’S LAP?
Last week, we reported that the professional fighter was continuing his one-sided beef with LeBron James because James committed the Caucasian sin (that was supposed to be “cardinal”—damn autocorrect) of failing to observe the national anthem. Do you know who else used to obsessively engage in a feud with LeBron that LeBron wasn’t the least bit invested in? You guessed it: Covington’s Tang-tinted hero.
Now, Covington is taking his Trump worship to a whole new level by defaulting to the ex-president’s favorite response to losing: It was rigged.
On Saturday in Las Vegas, Covington lost to Leon Edwards at UFC 296. Edwards—who was still reeling from the pre-fight remark Covington made about his father who was murdered when Edwards was 13—won by a unanimous decision. Covington may have been a little embarrassed since Trump was in attendance at the fight. Perhaps that has something to do with why he not only claimed in his post-fight interview that the fight was rigged against him, but that it was rigged because of his love for the ex-commander-in-criminal-indictments. (That was supposed to be “chief.” Autocorrect is really killing me, man.)
“I thought I had the win. I thought I did enough but y’know, the judges have never favored me,” Covington said while faithfully wearing his red “Make America Great Again” cap. “They hate me because I support Trump and y’know everyone hates Trump in this building so y’know it is what it is. Life goes on.”
I suppose we should just be happy Covington didn’t start a riot at the closest casino to force the three judges to overturn the fight results. He might have tried to hire Rudy Giuliani to tie up dozens of courts with frivolous lawsuits just to be told by dozens of judges that he still lost. (I hear Giuliani could use the money.)
Seriously though, Covington is really out here in his Trump apparel whining about how his Trump love trumped his imaginary victory. Then, according to Newsweek, Covington took the time during his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan to praise and endorse Trump despite the fact that he was not asked a single question about his MAGA messiah.
“I want to shout out Donald Trump. You can delay, but you can’t deny us. He’s going to make America great again, reduce inflation and secure our borders. Donald Trump is the only one that can do that. Vote Donald Trump in 2024,” Covington said.
If you asked Covington if he wanted pancakes for breakfast, he’d most certainly respond, “Trump has the best breakfasts. YUGE breakfasts. Maybe the most appetizing in history. He has pancakes, waffles and French toast. And he STILL maintains that 219-pound figure of his. How does he do it?”
Covington also talked about how he wanted Trump to give him a ring and walk him to the alter—sorry, I mean walk him to the fighting ring. (I can’t blame autocorrect on that one. I’m just pretty sure Covington wants to marry Trump.)
“I asked Donald Trump if he could walk me out. I saw him at Mar-a-Lago before I left and I got this suit signed by him. He said he would walk me out,” Covington said. “We called the UFC and Dana [White] and he said, ‘Logistically, Colby, it would just be too tough. He has almost a hundred Secret Service that comes with him and it would be too much mayhem to get you to the cage and get him there at the same time.’ So, unfortunately, Donald Trump won’t be able to walk out with me,” he continued. “But he’ll be cageside and I’ll give him a hug before I enter that octagon and I’ll see him cageside and he’ll be putting that belt around my waist Saturday night.”
Bro. Get a room.
