UFC 296: Did Colby Covington Go Too Far?
UFC 296 is quickly approaching. The final UFC event of 2023 goes down Saturday, December 16, 2023. The event is live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and is headlined by Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington for the UFC Welterweight Championship. But, things just got a little more crazy.
Colby Covington Goes Too Far?
Colby Covington has been no stranger to being outspoken in some wild ways, specifically with his trash talk and outside of the octagon antics. We all expected for the UFC 296 press conference to be insane solely based off of the dislike that Colby and Leon have for each other. But, Colby started off hot, having smoke for everyone. Colby immediately fired off comments about Ian Garry and his wife, following all the social media jokes about Ian, his wife and her ex-husband having a strange relationship to say the least. But, Ian Garry, who was supposed to be on the card against Vicente Luque, wasn’t there after pulling out due to having the flu. So, Ian could not defend himself. But, Tony Ferguson could.
Ferguson and Covington got into it for a few moments before they aggressively started complimenting each other and suddenly joined forces on the same side to be American patriots. Stephen Thompson, who’s notably one of the nicest fighters you’d ever meet, even caught some strays with Colby calling him a “pedophile” due to him teaching a kids karate class. For the record, they’re untrue statements towards Thompson. But, then, things turned for the worst.
If Colby Covington’s previous comments weren’t enough, Colby turned his attention back to his opponent, Leon Edwards. While the two went back and forth, Colby said “I’m going to drag you to hell, we’ll say ‘what’s up’ to your dad while we’re there.” This immediately changed Leon’s facial expression from jokey trash talk, to serious mode and without hesitation, Leon Edwards whipped a bottle at Colby’s head before standing up and trying to go after him.
Leon Edwards father was murdered in a London nightclub when Leon was only 13. Leon Edwards has been very open about how bad his fathers death effected him as a kid. Following the comments from Colby, social media was quickly ablaze with arguments of whether or not Covington went too far. Most noting that yes, Colby did take it too far, but some say anything goes in war, and it helps bring more attention to the fight.
While true, it does bring some more attention to the fight, is it the attention they really want? Sometimes, there’s lines you never cross in any situation, and many believe this is the line being crossed for MMA trash talk. Bringing up Leon’s father is vile and in poor taste. Of course, UFC will most likely not punish Covington for his comments, so it’s up to Leon Edwards to dish out the punishment come Saturday night. Let’s just hope comments like this are never spewed again, because it’s certainly uncomfortable to watch.
UFC 296 is set for Saturday night with the prelims kicking off at 8PM ET and the Pay-Per-View main card kicking off at 10PM ET.
From: Brady Alexander
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