UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland is not a fan of Colby Covington’s persona.
Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) recently went off on Covington after Covington said he’d love to slap him around. Both Strickland and Covington (17-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) carry themselves as proud Americans who have no filter when expressing their political views, but the champion said the difference is he’s true to himself while Covington puts on an act.
“Yeah, unlike Colby Covington, the fraudulent man himself,” Strickland told ESPN. “He’s just fraudulent. I think to be a UFC fighter, it is a sense of entertainment, WWE. But you want to base your character on authenticity and then you have somebody like Colby, who is a fictional persona that he’s created when he’s not trying to fall on Trump’s d*ck.
“It is the most cringeworthy sh*t. It’s so f*cked that Trump left the arena while he was giving his speech. It’s like watching the ugly girl get rejected at a party. You feel bad for the guy at this point. Don’t worry, Colby, he knows your name.”
Strickland makes his first title defense when he takes on Dricus Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 297 main event at Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and early prelims on ESPN+.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.
