Israel Adesanya and other Black UFC athletes respond to Colby Covington’s “racist” comments

Israel Adesanya and other notable Black UFC athletes have fired back at welterweight fighter Colby Covington for his recent controversial remarks.

Prior to his grudge match with bitter rival Tyron Woodley this past weekend, ‘Chaos’ made headlines when he suggested that ‘T-Wood’ was a “domestic terrorist sympathizer” for his support of Black Lives Matter.

Despite dominating Woodley in their event-headlining match-up on Saturday night, Colby Covington continued to throw shade at ‘The Chosen One’ during the UFC Vegas 11 post-fight press conference. The former interim title holder, Covington, referred to Woodley as a “communist” who was taking a stance for “life long criminals”.

Covington would later turn heads when he spewed some controversial comments in the face of Israel Adesanya’s good friend and welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.

“Who did you get a call from? Did you get a call from, freaking, your little tribe? Did they give you some smoke signals for you?” Covington said to Usman after receiving a call from United States President Donald Trump. “You’re a joke, Marty Fakenewsman!”

image via @ufc on Instagram (photographer not listed)

Those comments insulting Usman’s Nigerian background, compiled with his remarks about Woodley, made Colby Covington enemy number one amongst many MMA fans as well as some fellow fighters.

UFC welterweight standout Leon Edwards had the following to say about Covington’s recent remarks in a interview with MMAFighting.

“That’s what got me – the UFC has said nothing about it,” Edwards said. “ESPN has said nothing about it. Letting it flow like it’s a normal thing to f**king say and do and it’s not. Your tribe and smoke signals and blah, blah, blah, and he’s calling Woodley a terrorist because of Black Lives Matter. All these statements he’s making is racist. There’s no other way to go around it.”

Reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya also weighed in on Colby Covington’s controversial remarks.

“It just shows you the landscape of the media, what it is right now,” Adesanya said when speaking to MMA Fighting. “I made a joke about dropping [Yoel] Romero like the Twin Towers and everyone lost their mind, even if I said it was a joke and it was pretty funny, but people took it as I was being offensive and digging – but I was making a joke.”

Israel Adesanya continued:

“This guy has directly insulted my culture, my brother and many other cultures and stuff and no one says anything. But it just shows you a mirror. Shows you a mirror to you guys. So yeah, I don’t really care. Kamaru Usman broke his jaw.”

What do you think of the reactions from Leon Edwards and Israel Adesanya regarding Colby Covington’s recent comments towards Kamaru Usman and Tyron Woodley? Share your thoughts in the comments section PENN Nation!

on September 23, 2020