Kamaru Usman Fires Back At Colby Covington: The Referee Had To ‘Protect You From Yourself’

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the referee stoppage at UFC 245 this past December.

UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington headlined the pay-per-view (PPV) event, and their fight went into the fifth round after a lot of back-and-forth action. However, Covington’s jaw was broken midway through the contest, and the damage seemed to catch up with him late in the final round. Usman dropped Covington and finished him off on the canvas with ground-and-pound in a sprawled position.

After the stoppage, Covington was upset with referee Marc Goddard’s decision to stop the fight. Covington said none of the ground-and-pound shots really affected him, and he was fine to continue, and wanted to go out on his shield. Covington has been very vocal about his displeasure with Goddard, so much so that his fans have sent the veteran referee death threats.

Now, Usman has offered his take on the situation. Trying as best he can to be impartial, Usman said he has no issue with the stoppage when speaking to MMA Fighting.

“That’s the thing about me being rational and trying to see it from all sides, absolutely [it was a good stoppage],” Usman said. “Because taking myself out of it as the fighter that won and also taking myself out of it looking at it from Colby’s perspective but looking at it from the referee’s perspective.

“I hit him with some big, big shots in there. Hitting him with the right hand that hurt him. That clearly hurt him. Hitting him with the left hand that hurt him. Hitting him with a series of punches against the cage that definitely hurt him and then the big right hand that just sat him down really bad. So he’s hurt really bad, he got up, I let him up trying to fight back up and then hit him with another shot that just dropped him.

“For a referee looking at all of that, at the end of the day, you’re sprawled out and I’m beating on the side of your head, the referee’s got to protect you from yourself sometimes.”

Usman also doesn’t see any controversy in the stoppage and believes the referee was justified in calling the action off after seeing Covington take a series of big shots beforehand.

“You can say it’s controversial but you have to see the referee just saw you take all those big shots in a row,” Usman said. “He has to be able to step in to protect you from yourself so you can live to fight another day.”

Now, Usman is likely to defend his title against American Top Team (ATT) teammate Jorge Masvidal next. UFC president Dana White has said he’d like to book that fight for International Fight Week in July. Despite Covington suggesting he wants a rematch or nothing else, he has also been called out by Michael Chiesa, who has been on a roll at 170 pounds. It will be interesting to see where the welterweight title picture goes from here.

What do you think about Usman’s comments towards Covington?