Colby Covington lays into NBA icon Lebron James for allegedly using unethical means to “make his millions,” asks him to “go to China”
Colby Covington continues to not hold a particularly high opinion of Lebron James.
Covington returned to the stage after having seemingly finished a pre-fight media scrum leading into UFC 296. The December 16th welterweight title fight is heating up as Leon Edwards looks to defend his gold against Covington who has had two previous bids for 170-pound gold.
Despite 'Chaos' having an immediate focus on 'Rocky', Covington took aim at Lebron James, who Covington has publically called out before.
Seemingly apropos of nothing in this particular instance though, Covington said,
"If you hate America so much and you don't like this country that gave you a billion dollars, leave it or come deal with me. Go to China, go to the sweatshops that you employ all these laborers."
"Use these women and pay them pennies on the dollar to make your millions. F*ck you Lebron James, you're a coward. You're a spineless coward and you're a b****."
Check out Covington's media day barb to the NBA legend below:
Colby Covington and Lebron James: A one-sided beef
In one of several instances these last few years, Covington called out James in the earlier part of last year due to their opposing stances on police officers.
There have also been prior instances throughout the earlier 2020s of Covington ardently disagreeing with Lebron James' social-political views, including Black Lives Matter.
After besting Tyron Woodley, Covington called out the NBA great and posited that he could blast through James in 10 seconds if they were to fight.
This sort of "sweatshop" rhetoric has been used before by Covington. In a past interview with Daily Wire, Colby Covington referred to James as "a hypocrite" because he supposedly turned a blind eye to injustices in China to comment on American issues.
In that same DW interview, the UFC welterweight also referred to James as a "Chinese puppet master" and that's why he supposedly stays silent on social inequalities in China.
A consistent thread through all of this is that James has not responded to the former interim champion. Perhaps that will change if Colby Covington cements himself as a UFC titleholder this weekend, but that remains to be seen.