Colby Covington: I’ll slap Dana White in face with UFC belt if he tries to put it on me

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

In a move befitting of a made-up title, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will put the “BMF” belt on the winner of UFC 244.

If former interim welterweight champ Colby Covington is to be believed, the UFC might want to inquire about The Rock’s availability if it doesn’t want the fourth wall broken at UFC 245.

Covington, who fights welterweight champ Kamaru Usman for the undisputed title on Dec. 14, threatens to get violent if UFC President Dana White does his normal duty and straps the belt on the winner.

”I can tell you who’s not wrapping it around my waist, and that will not be Dana White,” Covington told “Submission Radio.” “If he tries to wrap it around my waist, I’m gonna take the belt from him and slap him in the face with it.”

Of course, such a move would come straight out of the pro-wrestling playbook Covington relies on for promoting fights. But at least by all appearances, there’s a real rivalry between the fighter and promoter.

Stripped of the interim welterweight title six months after capturing it, Covington threatened to sue his promoter if he wasn’t released from contract. He confronted White on camera in a casino to demand a title shot. As time went on, his words grew more and more hostile toward the UFC executive.

When a planned fight with Usman at UFC 244 fizzled, Covington called his interactions with his promoter “slave labor negotiations.”

Even on the cusp realizing a long-delayed title shot, Covington hasn’t toned down the rhetoric one bit. He vows to do things his way if he wins the belt.

”Whether they love me and want to see me win, or hate me and want to see me knocked out, I’m doing what I do best,” he said. “What’s great about this is, this is an opportunity for me to just really shove this up the UFC’s ass and say, f*ck you guys, I don’t give a f*ck about you guys, now you have to come to me.

”So, you’re gonna be calling me after December 14th begging to get me back in there. And if you don’t come right next time, you know, I don’t need to fight again, man. I already have enough money in my bank account where I don’t have to ever fight or do anything ever again. I’m making multi six-figure sponsors from Bang Energy, from a CBD company, from a betting website. So, I’m making more money in sponsors than Marty Fakenewsman’s gonna make in this fight.”

White recently admitted the ex-interim champ’s antics have made him a very popular commodity in the UFC. He still blamed Covington for the UFC 244 cancelation, saying the fighter turned down a title opportunity for the second time after spurning a fight with then-champ Tyron Woodley.

What Covington sees is a promoter who makes it up as he goes along according to business necessity.

”It’s just so funny to make him look stupid and make him look silly,” he said. “First off, his narrative was, ‘He’s ducking fights.’ Oh yeah, that’s why I took a fight with Robbie Lawler on three weeks’ notice and I didn’t even train for it because I had a cut and I saved your show – your desperate ESPN show that needed the ratings and needed someone to show up and save the day. I did that for you. Now I’m showing up in an undisputed title fight three months later.

”So, everything he says, it’s never truthful, and just like the president (Donald Trump) says, truth is a force of nature. And I operate in truth and he operates in lies. So, there’s a difference between me and Dana White, and that’s truth and lies. Honestly, I don’t care what he says. He has a lot to say all the time, and I don’t pay attention to him anymore. I don’t follow him on any social media platform, so I could give a s*it less what he has to say. I’m showing up, I’m kicking ass, I’m taking names and I’m cashing the biggest checks in the sport, and that’s that. There’s not a man alive that can stop me right now.

”Dana White needs to get his brain checked because he might have CTE if he’s making up lies like that.”

Provided injuries or other last-minute hiccups intervene, nothing should be able to stop Covington from getting his chance to take UFC gold from Usman. It’s a rivalry that’s escalated to fever pitch over the past year, and it should do big business at the box office. That should make both Covington and White happy.

As for the truth about who’s telling the truth and who’s lying, that can lie somewhere in the middle. Covington just wants his promoter nowhere near the moment allegedly withheld from him for so long.