Colby Covington Details Altercation with Fabricio Werdum, Explains Why He Called the Cops
Colby Covington has finally broken his silence regarding an altercation with former heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum in Australia last week.
The situation unfolded outside of the UFC’s host hotel in Sydney ahead of the event held this past Saturday night as Covington ended up in a scuffle with Werdum that ended with a boomerang being thrown at the No. 3 ranked welterweight contender.
Werdum claimed that he knocked Covington’s phone out of his hand after he was insulted while on his way out of the hotel and then the welterweight threw a kick at him before security intervened.
Covington completely refutes that version of the story while explaining in his own words what happened during the altercation with Werdum.
“It’s on camera. There’s no hiding from the truth. The lies are going to come out,” Covington explained. “Werdum is walking around making a joke out of this saying ‘this is funny’ and his side of the story is ‘Colby came downstairs and he’s screaming at me that I’m a filthy animal and he kicked me’. Does that whole story make any sense to you? No, it’s a complete f–king lie.
“The real story is on camera and it’s going to come out very soon. I’m downstairs, I’m sitting outside and I’m waiting for my taxi, I’m looking at my phone, tweeting at Tyron Woodley talking s–t saying ‘yo what’s up b–ch when are you going to stop being scared, looking for lightweights’ I’m looking at my phone and the next second I know, I get hit in the face. I stumbled into the middle of the road and I’m like what the f–k is going on. I look up and it’s Fabricio Werdum.”
Covington claims that Werdum attacked him without provocation and he believes that the situation would have gotten worse if not for security intervening in the situation.
“He’s walking at me with his coach Rafael Cordeiro, they’re both screaming at me — ‘you’re going to die, we’re going to kill you’ — they’re walking at me like they’re going to jump me,” Covington said. “I’m like get the f–k back, what’s your f—king deal, get the f–k back. We’re f–king professionals. I’m walking back, two security guards get in the way and the guy John Wood from Syndicate MMA breaks it up, gets in the middle of us so I don’t get jumped and attacked again. I already got attacked once. Fabricio’s still yelling at me, ‘I’m going to kill you for the comments you made’.
“The next thing I know he picks up this big ass wooden boomerang — the same boomerang they use for hunting in Australia for kangaroos — and he chucks the f–king boomerang at my face. Luckily, I had good enough reflexes to move a little bit cause that would have hit me square in the face. But instead it hit me in the side of the face and grazed off my shoulder. That was the event. I walked away.”
@FabricioWerdum attacks @ColbyCovMMA with a boomerang outside the hotel for UFC Sydney! ? pic.twitter.com/MCadJmCaXu
— Dan Hangman Hooker (@danthehangman) November 16, 2017
Afterwards, Covington had a television appearance in Australia, which he kept while not discussing what had just happened in the altercation with Werdum.
Covington says that when UFC officials finally did hear his side of the story, it conflicted with Werdum and there was no way to reveal what actually happened without seeing security camera footage from the hotel.
To retrieve that footage, Covington was required to file a police report so he ultimately called the local authorities, who took his statement and then filed charges against Werdum for common assault.
“The whole thing is a joke and a circus and I had to have it handled the right way. The UFC brought me in the room and they didn’t know what to believe. Werdum’s saying one story, I’m saying the next story, so the only way to get the real story was to get the video tapes from the hotel,” Covington explained.
“No one was going to give me video tape or believe my side so I had to get the video tapes from the hotel and the only way I could get the video tapes from the hotel is if I called the police and filed a police report. Sure enough I filed the police report, I gave an accurate statement, I said everything truthful to the law and that’s how the video tape came about.”
Covington believes the entire altercation happened because Werdum wanted to look like the hero to his Brazilian fans after his comments following a win over Demian Maia a few weeks ago.
On that night, Covington called Brazil “a dump” and then referred to the people in Brazil as “filthy animals”, which only served to stir up even more emotion from the fans as well as numerous fighters from the South American country.
“He’s trying to put himself over to the Brazilian fans. Let’s be honest. The guy lives in a gated community in California. The guy’s a joke,” Covington said about Werdum. “He’s claiming Brazil but he lives in a gated community in [California]. How does that make sense? What it is, he’s trying to play the hero because I’m the most hated guy in Brazil in MMA.
“So he wants to look like the hero and put himself over but really he just put himself in jail.”
As far as what happens to Werdum next, Covington says he couldn’t care less but prefers to leave it to the justice system in Australia to deal with him.
Werdum admonished Covington for getting the police involved in their skirmish after he won his main event fight against Marcin Tybura on Saturday night.
Covington counters by pointing out that he’s allowed to say whatever he wants to say but if anyone wants revenge, then that can be handled inside the Octagon. Otherwise, Covington makes it clear that attacking someone for what they’ve said is still against the law.
“We’re prize fighters. If somebody wants to say something to me, tell Tyron Woodley to come say something to me in the Octagon,” Covington said. “He can say whatever he wants to me in the Octagon. He can try to beat me up. He can try and kill me. He can put his hands on me but if I’m out in the streets, you can’t touch me.
“That’s against the law.”
