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Colby Covington has accused UFC referee Marc Goddard of unfair treatment in his loss to Kamaru Usman.
UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman put his title on the line against Colby Covington at UFC 245 (December 2019). In what was a closely contested fight, Usman defeated Covington via fifth-round TKO.
In the aftermath of their fight, Colby Covington alleged that Marc Goddard, the referee who officiated their UFC 245 fight, gave Kamaru Usman multiple breaks at crucial points in the fight. Covington also insinuated that when the roles were reversed and Usman landed illegal strikes on Covington, Goddard didn’t pause the action.
In a recent interview with James Lynch after UFC 261, Colby Covington sounded off on his archrival Kamaru Usman. ‘Chaos’ also jibed at referee Marc Goddard.
Covington stated:
“You know, without Marc Goddard being in there – the anti-Brexit fool, who is literally hating on me and calling calls against me because he doesn’t like who I support and what I support. So, you know, there’s not going to be a ref to help to stop him and change my momentum. A guy that’s gonna call a n*t shot when it was clearly a liver kick. A guy that’s not gonna give him extra time when he’s faking in the other eye; when I barely touched his left eye, he’s faking on his right eye like his right eye is hurt. So, he’s not going to get these momentum changes.
“And I just saw last night (at UFC 261) a lot of weakness, James. I don’t think people saw it. People were trying to mark this as some great knockout and this and that. No, I saw the first round how tired Marty (Kamaru Usman) got. You go look back on the tape, you’re gonna see him that he’s starting to gas. He was starting to show fatigue. He started throwing big shots. If he fights like that against me, James, I promise you I’ll finish him inside three rounds.” (*H/T Sportskeeda for the transcription)
Colby Covington notably suggested that he observed weakness, particularly in Kamaru Usman’s cardio, in Usman’s UFC 261 fight against Jorge Masvidal.
Furthermore, Colby Covington has time and again criticized Marc Goddard for the latter’s alleged unfair bias at UFC 245. Covington believes that the differences in their respective political beliefs caused Goddard to act in a discriminatory manner against him.
Colby Covington could face Kamaru Usman in a rematch before the end of 2021
Although Colby Covington has been campaigning for a rematch against Kamaru Usman, Usman and his manager Ali Abdelaziz have claimed that Covington currently doesn’t deserve a rematch. Abdelaziz confirmed that Usman is interested in defending his title against Michael Chiesa next.
Usman has also emphasized that he intends to fight multiple times this year, having already competed in February and April. The consensus in the MMA community is that despite calls from Usman’s team for a fight against Chiesa, the UFC is likely to schedule a rematch between Usman and Colby Covington next.
Prior to UFC 261, UFC president Dana White himself had announced that Colby Covington would be next in line to face the winner of the Usman-Masvidal matchup for the UFC welterweight title.
