Den före detta interimmästaren i weltervikt Colby Covington är missnöjd med UFC:s behandling av honom.
Covington var tänkt att möta mästaren Kamaru Usman om bältet under UFC 244 i november, men denna planen gick i kras när de inte kunde komma fram till en överenskommelse som gynnar alla de involverade parterna.
I det senaste avsnittet av BJPenns podcast uttryckte Covington sitt missnöje med organisationens oärliga affärspraxis och deras ’mobbning’ av fighters.
That’s how UFC does business, they do the bully tactics. 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 fortsätter med att berätta att han är trött på att göra UFC tjänster, till exempel när han hoppade in i matchen mot forne welterviktsmästaren Robbie Lawler på kort varsel under UFC Newark. Han menar att UFC inte gav honom någonting i gengäld för detta.
The UFC always makes promises, they’ve made me so many promises. [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%.
Vad tycker ni om Covingtons kommentarer? Har han och andra fighters i organisationen rätt i att kräva mer av UFC?
