Dana White claims Colby Covington's rant against the "Black Lives Matter" movement wasn't racist
In the wake of his spectacular victory over former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, Colby Covington made some very controversial comments about the "Black Lives Matter" movement. Covington's comments sparked a massive outrage but UFC president Dana White says that he doesn't believe what Covington said was racist in nature.
Colby Covington's rant against the "Black Lives Matter" movement
Colby Covington is very vocal in support of Donald Trump supporter, and after beating Tyron Woodley, who is an African American and a dedicated BLM supporter, Covington trashed the entire BLM movement on live television.
“The Black Lives Matter is a complete sham,” Covington said post-fight. “It’s a joke. They’re taking these people that are complete terrorists. They’re taking these people that that are criminals. These aren’t people that are hardworking Americans, blue-collar Americans. These are bad people. They’re criminals. They shouldn’t be attacking police,” Covington added.
Colby Covington didn't just stop at insulting Tyron Woodley, the outspoken fighter then went on to take a jibe at UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman who is a Nigerian native, by calling his people "tribe".
“Who did you get a call from? Did you get a call from, freaking, your little tribe? Did they give you some smoke signals for you?” Covington shouted to Usman. “You’re a joke, Marty Fakenewsman!”
However, UFC President Dana White doesn't think that any of these comments from Covington actually qualify as racist and stressed on the fact that the UFC believes in freedom of speech for everyone so he will not ask Colby Covington to draw the line unless it comes across as blatantly racist .
“These guys all have their own causes, things, they’re own beliefs,” White said of Covington (via MMA Fighting). “We don’t muzzle anybody here. We let everybody speak their mind. I don’t know what he said that was racist. I don’t know if I heard anything racist that he said.”