White Criticizes Covington’s Comments, Advises Ferguson To Retire After UFC Loss
Dana White hit out at Colby Covington’s controversial comments towards Leon Edwards before their UFC 296 clash.
Edwards successfully retained his welterweight title after beating Covington via a unanimous decision. Before the fight, the pair exchanged verbals during a fiery pre-fight presser. Covington brought up Edwards’ late father, who was murdered when Edwards was just 13.
“I’m bringing you to the seventh layer of hell. We’ll say ‘what’s up’ to your dad while we’re there,” Covington said
After that, Edwards threw a water bottle at Covington, but the former continued his war of words. “He’s the ultimate feeling champion. He’s no ultimate fighting champion. Better get the tissues ready,” Covington stated.
After the result, Edwards’ entourage directed their anger towards Covington. That is when security intervened to make sure that nothing untoward happened. Although Edwards gained his revenge, Covington’s comments have earned the disapproval of White and many others.
White On Covington
“It bothered everybody. What I say, it’s true: We’re in the fight game, and lots of mean things are said. (But) one of the things that I really don’t like is family (trash talk). When you start going after family, whether it’s the kids, the wife, the parents, whatever, it’s just such a nasty thing to do. But again, this is one of those sports where you say horrible things and then 24 hours later it goes down,” White said
It was not only Covington that White felt obliged to comment on. The CEO of the UFC had a few words to say about Tony Ferguson’s loss to Paddy Pimblett. Ferguson lost again, making that his seventh defeat in a row, via a unanimous decision.
This was despite Ferguson making drastic changes to his training. He enlisted the help of David Goggins, but those measures were not enough to get him the win. His last victory was back in 2019 when he beat Donald Cerrone. But at 39, White felt it was the right time for Ferguson to leave the sport.
White On Ferguson
“I would love to see Tony retire. When you talk about a skid, you look at the guys he fought, too. That plays a factor into it, and how did he look right up until he lost? Tonight, Tony looked like he should retire,” White
Nevertheless, Pimblett was against the idea of Ferguson’s retirement if it was not based on his terms. Ferguson has repeatedly stated that he will not walk away from the sport, which may suggest that he may do so once he acquires a win. That could result in him facing lower-ranked opposition to make that happen. Either way, Pimblett wanted to see Ferguson do the right thing by him.
“It’s mad the way people are telling him to retire. It’s the person’s decision who’s fighting of when they want to retire. No one will ever tell me when to retire. It’s my decision. If Tony wants to keep getting in there and fighting, he can. I think if you put him in there against someone lower in the division, like a Mark O. Madsen or Drakkar Klose or someone like that, he beats them,” Pimblett stated
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