We were only a few weeks removed from seeing Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington in the main event of UFC 272. Given how the press conference and trash talk was for all of fight week, I was kind of glad that we would be able to put that one in the past and probably not hear from either of them for a little bit. I'm all for trash talk and trying to sell a fight, but that was particularly cringe inducing and hard to watch for me. I'm not big on watching the UFC press conferences in general, but the Twitter clips that I saw were much worse than what we typically get. Of course, they couldn't stay out of the news cycle for more than a couple of weeks after Masvidal allegedly attacked Covington at a Miami restaurant. Now, I am well aware that MMA Twitter isn't exactly the most rational place to explore, but I was surprised with how many people took Colby's side here. I suppose that is more a product of the society that we live in more than anything. That was further confirmed by the Will Smith and Chris Rock altercation earlier this week. I'm not sure why, but it seems like everything that happens needs to have a clear division and you have to be on one side or the other. I guess I am in the minority on this one, but I really don't think that needs to be the case. I have prided myself and my returning readers as people who don't want to be a part of the hot take machine that the current landscape of sports media seems to rely on. Not every event needs to be followed with an outlandish statement or conclusion. On this website, we try our best to not be a prisoner of the moment and approach thing with sound logic and facts before we react emotionally. I am going to try and do my best as I give my own personal thoughts on both sides of the situation as it currently stands.
I want to start off by saying that I don't believe anyone is right in this situation. Both parties share a responsibility for what has happened and are both wrong in different ways. Normally when I do posts about two fighters, I'll go with the winner first, so I guess I'll stick to that format and talk about Colby Covington first. While Colby Covington was the victim in terms of the actual attack that got Masvidal arrested, he's not completely absolved. Colby Covington has a chronic problem of crossing the line in his trash talk and this is the time that someone decided to do something about it. I'll get to Masvidal in the next section, so I'm not letting him off the hook, but just wait for that. However, Colby Covington isn't new to going to places that I think are off limits when it comes to trash talking an opponent or "selling a fight" as so many like to put it. He's made distasteful comments regarding where Kamaru Usman is from in addition to commenting on fighters' families far too often. When you so consistently talk about sensitive subjects, you're going to eventually have someone respond to them and that is what happened here. He was talking about Dustin Poirier's wife and daughter in the cage after the fight and has been mentioning Masvidal's ex-wife and kids. When you are so quick to bring up a fighter's personal life all the time, it was really only a matter of time before one of them did something about it. While I don't condone attack someone in a restaurant, people do crazy things when it comes to family, as we've seen in recent times with the Cain Velasquez situation. I don't think crossing the line in trash talk should result in public attacks, but at the same time, he couldn't continue this and just expect nothing to happen either. Fighters get into public scuffles for a lot less and this isn't Colby's first time. Hopefully this brings him some perspective on things and he will stop mentioning families and kids when he's talking about other fighters.
Now, with that said, I'm not on Jorge Masvidal's side either. I know what Colby has said crosses the line and shouldn't happen, but two wrongs don't make a right. At the end of the day, we live in a society that has rules and no matter what someone says, about your family or not, you don't just get free reign to do whatever you want. I understand where Masvidal is coming from and I most certainly wouldn't want people talking about my family in that way, but just because someone did something we didn't like doesn't mean that you can beat them up in a restaurant. I don't really know what to say beyond that. I know they're professional fighters, but that is what they do at work, not just out in the real world. Jorge Masvidal is an adult man that should have the self control to look beyond his immediate emotions, but they clearly got the best of him this time around. Like I said before, we have seen people do crazy things for their families and this is just another example of that.
I think what makes this such a sad and unfortunate situation for me is that this was so entirely preventable. None of this had to happen. These are both men in their 30s and we have resorted to this. I wish Jorge Masvidal had someone he could have talked to that would have advised him against this. I know Masvidal doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would have taken to that advice, but if there was someone close enough to him, they could have reeled him in and gotten him to cool off. There were better ways to deal with this situation that wouldn't have gotten him arrested. On the other hand, none of this should have ever happened because this line of trash talk should have been put to bed a long time ago. If someone would have stopped Colby from consistently crossing these lines years ago, we wouldn't be here. Talking about someone's family and paying child support does nothing to sell a fight and falling back on that narrative is just an excuse. In my opinion, someone's family, religion, and politics should be left out of things. Hearing someone insult someone's religion or make comments about someone's wife being in their DM's is just stupid. The UFC could have stopped Colby from making these types of comments years ago if someone had pulled him to the side and it wouldn't have even been that big of a deal. Unfortunately, we know what Dana White thinks about these things and I wouldn't really expect them to go away any time soon. This is really just an unfortunate situation because it makes the sport look bad. We all love this sport and should want it to be cast in the best light possible. Having two really good fighters fighting in a restaurant while people are trying to have a nice meal isn't the way I want to see MMA talked about in the mainstream media and I don't think that is what you want either. We know the UFC won't suspend them, so I'm not even going to get into that. The UFC has relied on a philosophy of "anything goes and it gets decided in the cage" and I don't see that going away any time soon. Most of the time it happens without any issue, but certain topics just shouldn't come up in a press conference in my opinion.
At the end of the day, both of these men are adults and have to be responsible for their actions. They both made their choice and they have to deal with the ramifications of that choice. If I had to boil my opinion down to a few sentences, it would be this: Both men are in the wrong. On one hand, just because someone says something that you don't like doesn't mean you can attack them and try to beat them up. On the other, just because people aren't supposed to attack you in public doesn't mean you should say whatever you want, especially in regards to someone's family. Ultimately, I wish none of this had happened. Not because I have a particular affinity for either fighter, but because I want the sport of MMA to continue to grow and not have incidents like this constantly holding it back.
I'm a little afraid to ask, but what do you guys think? This is just a bad situation all around right? Leave your thoughts and comments below. I normally don't have to say anything, but please be respectful to others. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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