It might sound like the start of a joke about the land down under, but UFC heavyweight star Fabricio Werdum really did hit Colby Covington with a boomerang in Australia yesterday, and the entire incident was caught on camera.
Werdum is the headlining star of this weekend’s UFC Fight Night 121 event in Sydney and Covington is also in town as a guest of the UFC, and that led to the two bumping into each other outside their hotel, where things quickly became heated.
It’s not clear who started the confrontation, though it likely revolves around recent derogatory comments Covington made about Brazil after defeating Demian Maia in Sao Paulo.
Mobile phone footage shows what happens next as Werdum throws a boomerang that he’s holding in his hand at Covington, which appears to hit him in the face.
Covington backs up and then starts broadcasting live on his mobile phone as he explains to fans what just happened, shows a clear mark on his cheek from the impact of the boomerang blow (which he mistakenly claims was due to a punch) and continues to hurl insults at Werdum.
“Look at this f-cking clown!” Covington said. “You’re a f-cking clown, Fabricio Werdum! You just punched me in the face, you want to come punch me again b-tch? What? What? Yeah you think you’re so tough. Look at you, f-cking f-ggot. That’s right, yeah you little b-tch. Hey, I’mma see you soon motherf-cker. Hey, you’re old motherf-cker, you ain’t sh-t!
“F-ck Brazil. F-ck Fabricio Werdum, little bitch ass. F-ck Brazil. A bunch of filthy animals. And they wonder why they get talked to like that, because they’re a bunch of animals.”
For the record, Werdum has since given his version of events, which makes no mention of the boomerang and further claims that Covington kicked him at some stage during the melee (though that doesn’t appear to occur during either of the two videos).
“ We were in the lobby, and I’ve never seen this guy before,” Werdum told FloCombat. “When I walked he looked at me and said, ‘Brazilian animals.’ And I was like: ‘Hey.’ I slapped his phone and asked, ‘What did you say?’ Then, he kicked my leg, but I managed to defend. Then the guys got in the middle and had nothing left. But he kicked me, he is audacious. I could have hurt myself.
“I don’t know why he insists on this mistake of speaking of the Brazilians… I didn’t understand. … He wants media, wants to imitate Conor McGregor. He looks like ridiculous the way he does. I didn’t believe when he said it. I didn’t believe it. I slapped his phone and he stepped back and kicked me. Then we were arguing, and he kept shouting that Brazilians were animals.
“If I had hit him in the face, he would be in the hospital. Certainly. There was no punch, he’s crazy.”
The UFC have since issued their own statement stating that they will be looking into the matter.
“UFC was made aware of the altercation between Fabricio Werdum and Colby Covington at the organization’s host hotel in Sydney, Australia,” the official UFC statement reads.
“The organization will conduct a full investigation to determine if the Athlete Conduct Policy was violated before taking any further action on this matter.”
The UFC are in an awkward spot here since Werdum is only a couple of days away from headlining the UFC Fight Night 121 event opposite Marcin Tybura and they don’t have a suitable replacement fight to take the top spot if they were to pull the Brazilian fighter from the card.
Werdum is not the only one who will likely end up in hot water over this ugly altercation though as Covington also shot himself in the foot by using a homophobic slur that was caught on his own video footage.
Werdum himself used that same slur recently during a heated confrontation with another fighter, Tony Ferguson, and as a result was forced by the UFC to apologize to the LBGT community and do community outreach work in the Las Vegas area, so Covington can expect something similar.
