Colby Covington Goes Off On UFC’s ‘Slave Labor Negotiations’
Colby Covington is not pleased with the UFC at the moment. “Chaos” is the clear cut next challenger for the UFC welterweight title.
Negotiations for a Covington vs. Kamaru Usman matchup broke down recently, with the UFC booking Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal for the UFC 244 main event in its place. Now, it remains to be seen who will be the next man up for the 170-pound title.
Recently, Covington spoke to BJPenn.com and continued to voice his concerns with the UFC’s negotiation tactics. Covington described it as “slave labor negotiations.”
“That’s how UFC does business, they do the bully tactics,” Covington said. “They do the slave labor negotiations. It’s sick man. They don’t want to pay any of the fighters because they want everybody to be poor, so they keep back coming back and fighting all the time, and fighting six times a year.”
Covington pointed out he continuously does favors for the UFC, such as stepping in to face Robbie Lawler at UFC Newark, and receiving nothing in return. Those days are over.
“The UFC always makes promises, they’ve made me so many promises,” Covington continued. “[They say] ‘Oh, do this and we’ll give you a favor here. We’ll throw you a bone next time.’ They never end up throwing that bone back, man. They just use you even more next time. So it’s just… I’m not going to be played for a fool anymore, man. They want to do business like that, then they’re not going to get any business. That’s that.
“They said, ‘Oh, show up for the Robbie Lawler fight.’ And needless to say, Robbie was training for 12 weeks for that fight. He was getting ready for [Tyron] Woodley, but Woodley was scared and he pulled out with a sore pinky. So Woodley didn’t want to get knocked out by Robbie, he was scared. He knows he got lucky the first time [they fought]. So I showed up on four weeks’ notice, without a training camp because I got a nasty cut from a head butt in the first week in training camp. I couldn’t even train.
“Pretty much had to run on the treadmill every day, that’s it. That’s not training timing, accuracy, all that. So I showed up with no camp, to save the UFC, to save the main event, to bring the First Family, to get the President Tweeting about the UFC. To get all the troops all over the world watching in their bases because I’m America’s and the troops’ favorite fighter. The UFC still doesn’t do good for me.
“I make them millions and millions and they just continue to just pocket all that money, and they don’t want to pay me a fraction — not even 5% of any of that money. It’s ridiculous how they can pocket 95, 98% and not give the fighters anymore than the 2, 3%.”
What do you think about Covington calling the UFC out for “slave labor negotiations?”
