Colby Covington claims to have been threatened by Lyoto Machida backstage

Perhaps the biggest story to emerge from the UFC’s Saturday-night stop in Sao Paulo, Brazil followed Colby Covington’s controversial post-fight speech. In this speech, which occurred moments after he was awarded a unanimous decision win over Demian Maia, Covington referred to Brazil as a “dump,” and the crowd in attendance as “filthy animals.”

In an unsurprising twist, it turns out that Covington’s comments pissed a lot of people off. Many of his fellow fighters have outwardly criticized him. The UFC is apparently “not very happy” with him and plans to review his actions and consider punishment. Even some of his teammates are upset with him.

Speaking to Jim Edwards of MMAUno.com on Sunday morning, Covington claims he was even threatened by Lyoto Machida, who was knocked out by Derek Brunson in the evening’s main event just minutes later.

“The UFC were just a little afraid for my safety so we were like rushed back to the hotel with security,” Covington said of the moments after his polarizing speech. “I had to go right back to my room and I wasn’t allowed out anywhere so I just bunkered down in my room. That’s why things happened the way they did.”

“When I went backstage there were still a lot of Brazilian people mad,” he continued. “All the Brazilian fighters were like ‘F*** you, I’m going to kill you if I see you. You’re dead.’ Even Lyoto Machida was focused on me saying ‘You disrespected Brazil. F*** you, I’ll f*** you up.’ I was like why are you worried about me, you got a fight with Derek Brunson in two seconds.”

“Before he was literally about to walk out, he was jarring with me as I walked into the room.”

Covington then explained that he doesn’t believe his comments deserve the negative reaction they’ve received.

“I think it’s ridiculous, I can’t believe we’re even talking about this,” he said. “Chael [Sonnen] and Conor [McGregor] like what have they said. They’ve said like ten things, homophobic, racial.

“I’m poking fun man. No one knows what happened to me on the walkout. They’re f***ing spitting at me, telling me I’m going to die, telling me f*** you and your mum and this and that. They’re throwing cups at me on the walkout, they tried to grab me as I walked out. I mean are you kidding me? I said they were filthy animals because they were being animals spitting at me and throwing stuff on me before the fight. This is on the walkout. But I’m the bad guy because I say the country is a dump?

“You know, at the end of the day this is all just fun and games. I’ve got a lot of respect for Brazil. I don’t think this is a serious matter and we shouldn’t even be talking about any punishment.”

What’s your take on the controversy surrounding Colby Covington’s post-fight speech?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/29/2017.