Colby Covington says he may not even wrestle Belal Muhammad at RAF 12 after a brawl nearly broke out this past weekend.
Following RAF 11 in Milwaukee — which saw Covington win the RAF crossover title with a win over Arman Tsarukyan, and Muhammad pick up a victory over Ben Askren — promotional officials announced that Covington vs. Muhammad would serve as the co-main event for RAF’s one-year anniversary show on Aug. 22 in Cleveland. As the press conference went on, things got heated between the two past UFC title holders, with Covington screaming at Muhammad to “shut the f*ck up” after Muhammad interrupting him answering a question. Tensions ran high, and after Covington threw a dig Muhammad’s way, he went after Covington, throwing a kick before things were separated.
Covington reacted to the melee a couple of days later, and said he started losing patience prior to the attack.
“Just completely annoyed,” Covington told MMA Fighting. “Just an unprofessional little clown that Belal is. It’s embarrassing. I didn’t interrupt him when he was answering his questions. I’m not offended by whatever he wants to say about me. The guy’s been saying things about me for years.
“He was saying, oh, I got my title shot in the UFC because of the color of my skin. He literally tweeted that, white privilege. He said, the only reason Colby’s fighting for the UFC title is because he’s white. Dude, could you imagine tweeting that? It’s disgusting. It’s racist. That’s the type of person that he is. Belal, no one remembers his name, f*cking whatever the f*ck his last name is.
“He’s hurling shots at me, my family, all types of different things. And you know what, whatever, dude. It’s America. Freedom of speech, dude. Your First Amendment, and guess what? My first amendment is protected by my second amendment, so he needs to figure that out.”
The rivalry between the two through the media has been going on for a few years now, and for the first time since things revved up, the two competed on the same card.
Both guys hurled insults at one another prior to RAF 11, through interviews and the pre-match press conference this past Friday. But things went to another level following Saturday’s record-breaking event at Panther Arena on the campus of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
“Dude, he’s been saying things about me for years, begging to get this fight with me, hurling shots at me, whatever,” Covington said. “Say whatever you want. You don’t hurt my feelings. I don’t care, keep saying it, but just like the UFC knows and the great Hunter Campbell, the greatest mind behind the UFC who is the face that runs the place, he puts Belal in the APEX because he doesn’t sell tickets. He’s a nobody. Not like myself, who I go to Madison Square Garden, the most iconic arena in the world, and I do a $10 million gate, one of the biggest gates in MSG history.
“That’s what separates us is he’s been begging for this fight, begging for this thing, and then he gets the chance, and he’s on the mic, and he’s saying, ‘Oh, I want to be a good example for the kids, and then you come take a cheap shot at me and kick me across the stage when I’m not even ready for it, and he won’t even let me talk at the press conference of my f*cking company. I’m an investor in Real American freestyle. He’s not an investor. He’s a nobody.
“He’s a bum, he’s irrelevant, and it was classless. You claim you wanna be an example for the kids. Is that how you set an example for the kids? Is that how you do your business? You can’t control your emotions? It was embarrassing.“
Speaking with Submission Radio on Sunday, Covington said he was pulling the match from Muhammad, and would defend his newly won belt against somebody else.
As time went on, Covington — who is now 4-0 competing for RAF — says the fight is not 100 percent off the table, but he’s veering more on the side of looking for another name — someone who Covington says will give him more of a challenge after what he saw from Muhammad against Askren.
“I don’t even know if I’m going to go against him,” Covington explained. “We might pull that match and go for someone better. The guy’s not accomplished anyways. It took him till minute five to take down the dead guy that shouldn’t even be out there. Once Ben’s lungs literally stopped working, that’s the only time he ever got a takedown on him.
“The guy’s not even worth my time. He’s irrelevant and, yeah, just very annoying.”
Muhammad got back in the combat sports win column with his first promotional win. In his RAF debut, Muhammad stepped up to face multi-time freestyle world champion David Carr, losing via tech fall at RAF 4 this past December.
The 38-year-old has dropped two straight in the octagon, including losing the welterweight title to Jack Della Maddalena 15 months ago at UFC 315, and dropping a decision to Gabriel Bonfim at UFC Vegas 118 in June.
While on The Ariel Helwani Show, Covington said he has a poll going with fans where they would vote on whether the match with Muhammad should take place, or go a different direction. Covington says he’ll go with whatever the people vote for.
“What makes RAF so great, and the great minds behind it – Eric Bischoff, Chad Bronstein, Izzy Martinez [and others behind the scenes] – but what makes our minds so great is we listen to the people…,” Covington said “If the people truly want it, I’m willing to grant it. It’s going to be an easy match. I’ll destroy the guy in 90 seconds or less, but obviously, the guy’s going to cheap shot.
“He’s not a professional, he’s a coward. So that’s just the thing I’m worried about is him taking a cheap shot on me trying to punch me when I’m beating his ass 10-0 tech falling him, and then having to deal with that. I don’t want to put any of those kids that are in that arena in a bad situation where a brawl spills out onto them and potentially someone could get hurt. That’s how a company like RAF could literally go under. We don’t wanna see anything like that happen.
“So I don’t know. We got to see. We’re going to listen to the people. We’re the people’s organization, RAF, and if the people want the matchup, we’re willing to give the people the matchup.”
