Colby Covington has been President Trump’s most outspoken supporter in the UFC for many years, so he’s not happy about the fact that he wasn’t included in the recently announced fight card for the upcoming UFC: White House event on June 14th.
“I wouldn’t say bothered, but I’d would just say more like bummed, just a little bummed,” Covington told MMAJunkie. “I thought I was a shoo-in for that spot. I’m the one that brought Trump into UFC back in 2018 when no one was supporting him. There wasn’t an athlete alive walking around Times Square supporting him like I was, wearing a MAGA hat through Times Square with my belt and going to media tours at Sports Illustrated, ESPN and everybody calling me the white elephant in the room because I was supporting Trump and wearing a MAGA hat.
“I thought that I was going to be able to get that call to represent the U.S. and be on the White House card. But unfortunately it wasn’t in their cards. Hunter didn’t give me the opportunity. The UFC didn’t give me the opportunity. I wasn’t going to go to Trump.
“Everybody was like, ‘Oh, you should have went to Trump and you should have asked for a favor.’ Man, he’s got way more important things to worry about like keeping world peace right now. We don’t want to see a world war, so I’m not going to bother him … I think the ship sailed for me going to the White House.”
There had been talk of Covington appearing on the card against Bo Nickal, who had called him out for the event, but the UFC opted to go a different route, leaving many fans bemused and underwhelmed by announcing Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus instead.
Even so, perhaps the 38-year-old Covington shouldn’t be too surprised about the snub given that he’s coming off back-to-back defeats against Leon Edwards and Joaquin Buckley where he looked jaded and a shadow of his former self.
Still, Covington now joins the ranks of those who are openly criticizing the quality of the fight card that the UFC has assembled for its heavily hyped show at the White House.
“It’s p*ss-poor at best,” Covington said. “I think the fans have said it. I think the fans have spoken. The fans said they hate it. It’s a terrible card. They promised six or seven title fights. They have one title fight and an interim title fight that they just put together last minute. The thing was just so disorganized. They put it together last minute. There wasn’t any high-ranking American fighters.
“I think they have two (American) guys on there. Michael Chandler, who is Iike 40 years-old. And then Sean O’Malley, who is a great fighter. Love Sean, but besides that, who’s the guys representing America on the 250th birthday of America? It doesn’t seem like there’s that guy there. It just seems like they just don’t care anymore. They made all that money with Paramount and they’re just happy. It is what’s it is. The fans have spoken. It’s unfortunate.”
