Former UFC double-champion and current color commentator Daniel Cormier has weighed in with his thoughts on the headline-grabbing story of the week that Jorge Masvidal attacked Colby Covington outside a restaurant in Miami Beach on Monday night.
“It’s hard for me to really sit up here and judge Jorge for his actions being that Jon Jones and I had many altercations that almost ended up in the same way,” Cormier said on his DC and RC podcast on ESPN. “Ultimately, people were able to stop us from taking it to the next level. But here’s the thing, a lot of these altercations happened prior to the fights happening and then we were always very clear of each other.
“When you’ve got 25 minutes — you’ve got 25 minutes and that is the only place in which I’m going to condemn Jorge Masvidal — you had 25 minutes less than two weeks ago to do everything you wanted. It does not seem as though this was a — it’s so hard here not to assume — but it does not seem as though this was a ‘come face to face and then we get into a fight,’ it seems like something different. And that’s where it becomes a little bit off.”
Cormier also went on to compare the situation to Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor’s long-running feud, which also turned violent outside of the Octagon, and fears that this new altercation between Masvidal and Covington could have long-lasting repercussions.
““Jorge Masvidal is a fighter,” Cormier said. “He’s an absolute fighter, he’s an absolute dog, but I don’t know if it can seep into the streets like that. We saw it with Khabib and Conor.
“Khabib was not willing to let it go. It went too far for him to say, ‘At the end of the fight, we’re OK.’ It went too far. And I feel like that’s what happened. … I just don’t really know if you can do it in the way that it seems to have been done because now I think that some serious stuff is gonna come out of this that these guys have families.”
That being said, Cormier also suggested that while he talks a big game, Covington is not the type of guy who is looking to fight on the streets, and has already proved his worth in the Octagon.
“Colby Covington is not a street guy,” Cormier said. “Like, I will tell you today, Colby Covington is not a street guy. Colby Covington is a guy that likes to talk and fight. The shtick may have crossed the line and now it’s gotten him into a situation that he is not really equipped for. That is why he didn’t have anybody in place with him to make sure that it didn’t cross a line. But because I know who I am, I always made sure somebody was in that place with me to make sure that I didn’t cross the line, to ensure my safety and protect everything that I was building.
“Understanding where you’re from, knowing that if things go sideways this is a dude that I know will go and do what he has to do. You’ve gotta have somebody you trust to make sure that you don’t go and lose everything that you worked so hard for. Colby’s not that guy. Colby’s not a guy that is looking to be dealing in street things. He may talk like it. When says he’s the King of Miami, he’s talking about he’s the best fighter from Miami and it’s hard to argue that right now considering Usman’s training in Colorado.”
