{"id":300066,"date":"2023-12-15T20:57:18","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T20:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/?p=300066"},"modified":"2023-12-15T20:57:18","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T20:57:18","slug":"colby-covington-makes-vile-joke-about-leon-edwards-dead-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/mma\/colby-covington-makes-vile-joke-about-leon-edwards-dead-father\/","title":{"rendered":"Colby Covington makes vile joke about Leon Edwards' dead father"},"content":{"rendered":"
Colby Covington’s vile remark about Leon Edwards’ murdered late father threatened to cause chaos at the UFC 296 press conference.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brit Edwards sat alongside his American rival Covington in Las Vegas to speak ahead of the fight, but things turned personal midway through the open event inside MGM Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘I’m bringing you to the seventh layer of hell,’ Trump-supporting Covington told Edwards, before adding: ‘We’ll say “what’s up” to your dad while we’re there.’<\/p>\n
Edwards’ demeanor quickly changed and he threw a water bottle at his rival, who was wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ cap, as well as fancy dress as George Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bottle struck Covington, leading to both fighters immediately standing up to confront each other before security stepped in to separate them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Colby Covington came to the UFC 296 press conference in fancy dress on Thursday afternoon<\/p>\n
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Tempers frayed between the pair when Covington made a joke about Leon Edwards’ dad<\/p>\n
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British fighter Edwards was calm until Covington made a distasteful joke about his late father<\/p>\n
Covington’s jibes at the press conference were largely light-hearted, if occasionally distasteful, until he overstepped the mark by a considerable distance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Edwards immediately leapt to his feet and tried to get at Covington, with security swiftly intervening.<\/p>\n
Covington then continued: ‘Little f*****g p***y. Ultimate Feeling champion he isn’t an Ultimate Fighting champion. Better get the tissues ready.’\u00a0<\/p>\n
The crowd then started chanting ‘USA’, before Covington said: ‘1776 baby. This is the American revolution. General Washington started it, General Covington ends it.’<\/p>\n
Edwards’ father was shot and killed in a London nightclub when the MMA star was just 13. ‘Rocky’ has since said he believes the motive of the murderer was a dispute over money.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Edwards was raised by his mother and has previously recalled being told the tragic news about his father when he was a young teen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Edwards, pictured here (L-R) with his sister, mother and grandmother – credits his mum as the most important influence on his life\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Edwards and Covington faced off ahead of their huge main event at UFC 296<\/p>\n
He said: ‘It was probably like 2am. I was in my room. Mum was in her room. We hear the phone ringing. I heard her crying, and I knew from then something bad, you know.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Eventually, she came into my room and just told me this, your dad\u2019s just got killed in London. It was something to do with money. I don’t know what exactly. It was some mad s***, but I knew that it could happen.<\/p>\n
‘It f****d me up. It pushed me more into gang life and crime, toward the negative. My mid-teens were my darkest years,’ he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Edwards is usually incredibly cool but evidently Covington’s grim jibe was beyond the pale and provoked the reaction he no doubt sought.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Keep that same energy backstage’, he told the challenger to his welterweight title.<\/p>\n
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Edwards is the current welterweight champion and has not been beaten for eight years<\/p>\n
Earlier in the press conference, Covington had gone after Edwards, saying: ‘Course you don’t know what I’m going for, you didn’t even graduate elementary school. You’re a f***ing idiot, literally what is your level of education I’d love to know.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘I’m the people’s champ. I’ve got a question for the people. Did you come out here to support these red coat m****erf*****s?’<\/p>\n
Edwards said: ‘Obviously you can overlook Colby because he’s dressed like that. He is a decent fighter but that won’t save him on Saturday night.’<\/p>\n