Colby Covington completely ripped into UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones, as well as NBA legend LeBron James, during a no-holds-barred rant to the media, just days before his return to the Octagon against Joaquin Buckley in a welterweight fight atop a UFC Fight Night card at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, on ESPN.
Covington has made a habit of saying or doing controversial things in an apparent effort to retain relevancy as he continues to fall from the near-top of the 170-pound division, having lost three of his last five fights, beating only Tyron Woodley and Jorge Masvidal in the last five years.
The Buckley bout is Covington's first of the year as he has not competed since a lopsided unanimous decision loss to Leon Edwards at UFC 296 inside T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas.
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Colby Covington Ripped Into Jon Jones & LeBron James
Here's everything the UFC welterweight said about the GOATs
On the four-time NBA champ, James, Covington said: "People think this guy is a role model."
"He wants to defund the police, the most patriotic people in America serving and protecting our country. Lebron, you’re a f****** scumbag, and I hope you get locked up."
He also verbally attacked Shavkat Rakhmonov, Khamzat Chimaev, and Ian Garry. And, while Buckley — his actual opponent — mostly escaped his vitriol, he still found time to attack Jones, too.
"I know his dark, hidden secrets that are in his closet … it’s disgusting. Dude, Jon Jones is an absolute f****** disgrace to this earth. He’s a f****** joke."
Jones has been in the news of late because of his third-round finish of a retiring Stipe Miocic, whom he slaughtered with an extraordinary spinning back kick to the body.
"Yeah, he beat Stipe. Respect to Stipe first off because he’s a first responder, and he puts his life on the line for the people and for his community. So shout out to Stipe, the greatest heavyweight of all time, but he was past his time. He shouldn’t have even been there, man.
"He knows he was old. He was just showing up for a paycheck."
"That’s not the Stipe of old that was in his prime anymore. I don’t think anything special of that performance."
Jones, the best of all time at light heavyweight, has fought twice at heavyweight and is the MMA market-leader's champ in that division. However, he is yet to fight Tom Aspinall, even though Aspinall is the interim champion. Jones, therefore, cannot call himself the undisputed champion while another fighter walks around with a version of the heavyweight title.
"I think Jon needs to stop ducking Tom Aspinall, just like he ducked [Francis] Ngannou. He ducked Ngannou a few years ago, now he’s ducking Aspinall. He doesn’t want to fight the guys he knows he’s gonna get his ass whooped against, so I don’t think anything special of Jon Jones."
"He’s a f****** coward, he’s a cheat."
The Covington vs Buckley fight headlines a card that also pits Cub Swanson against Billy Quarantillo, Manuel Kape against Bruno Gustavo da Silva, and has guys like Adrian Yanez, Ottman Azaitar, and Davey Grant in separate fights. It is the UFC's last show of the year.