Colby Covington says CREATING “Chaos” Colby SAVED HIS CAREER | The Daniel Cormier Show

0:09 When you moved to American Top Team, you immediately meet Jorge Masvidal, right?

0:15 He's a teammate of yours.

0:17 And you guys have this great team of guys that are training.

0:20 Little did you know, or did any of us know that at some point

0:24 that would become one of the biggest rivalries of your entire career.

0:27 But before that, you were just Colby Covington, the kid that wrestled.

0:31 There was no chaos.

0:32 When did you realize that like when did Can you specifically point cuz

0:36 I saw something where you said in the Demian Maia fight you knew,

0:39 man, if I don't do something more,

0:41 I'm going to probably get cut from this thing even though I'm winning.

0:46 When did you realize that this ain't going to be enough, me just winning fights?

0:50 You have to kind of save your career.

0:51 So like what was the pressure like uh going into that Demian Maia fight?

0:56 I realized it after I fought the number six guy in the world,

0:59 Dong Hyun Kim, Yeah.

1:00 to Singapore to fight him and I I just saw

1:03 like how Sean Shelby was treating me like after the fight.

1:05 He's like, "Oh yeah, you know,

1:06 you maybe we'll get you someone in the rankings, maybe not." You know,

1:08 he didn't really have like a plan for me and he I'm just like,

1:11 "Dude, I'm like eight and one, nine and one in the UFC.

1:13 Like how am I not getting like a crazy contract and and big big fights,

1:17 you know, and number one contender fights, championship fights?

1:19 Like what's the direction?" So I knew.

1:21 I was like going after that fight I started talking mad smack.

1:24 I was like, "Demian Maia, I'm going to come drop my nuts on your head

1:27 right in your hometown of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

1:30 All you Brazilians are filthy animals and Brazil is a dump." And I

1:34 just I knew going into that fight I had to do something different,

1:36 you know, otherwise I was going to lose my job.

1:38 And it's crazy because like my manager at the time,

1:40 Dan Lambert, he didn't tell me that like he talked to Sean.

1:43 Sean said, "No matter what Colby does in the Demian Maia fight,

1:46 we're not re-signing him.

1:46 He's not interesting.

1:48 He's not like an exciting fighter.

1:50 He doesn't sell money,

1:51 so we're not going to re-sign to a contract." So I was like,

1:54 "It's just crazy." Cuz like I never knew that, but like I had a gut intuition.

1:57 Like it was like God telling me like, "Bro, you need to do something.

2:00 You need to do something drastic,

2:02 otherwise you're not going to be making money in the sport and you're going

2:04 to be going and working a basic job again." They want to do that.

2:08 You cannot You cannot go back to work at a basic job after

2:11 you do this[ __] because the rush of the fight is too good.

2:14 Yes.

2:15 It's too much.

2:16 Um the rush of walking out of the the cage and going into the octagon.

2:20 But I was in there and um in that octagon.

2:24 And at the time I didn't realize you had moved from Clovis so early.

2:26 But I was going, "Hey, they might love this guy in Clovis,

2:28 California, even though you hate him out here.

2:30 Give it up for Colby Chaos Covington." I still to this day,

2:33 Colby, have not heard a place boo louder than that.

2:36 And I've been in I was in an arena

2:38 with 61,000 people in Israel Adesanya uh beat Robert Whittaker.

2:42 Yeah.

2:42 And it was louder than that in Sao Paulo that night.

2:46 And then you go back to the hotel and they're trying to kill you?

2:49 Trying to kill me, man.

2:50 All the all the favela gang members showed up and they were trying to kill me.

2:53 They had the they had to have the secret service of Brazil like escort me out,

2:56 like put a hoodie on, hat,

2:58 keep my eyes down and and get on the next flight out right away.

3:00 Were you thinking like, "Oh my god, am I going to went too far?" Yeah,

3:03 I was thinking I went too far when when

3:05 the next fight UFC tried to put me back in Rio

3:07 for a title fight with RDA and then they

3:09 found out I had a $50,000 bounty on my head,

3:12 so they moved the whole show from Rio, UFC, all the way to Chicago,

3:15 Illinois for that fight for that title fight on like three or four weeks notice.

3:19 That's when I knew it was serious.

3:20 I was like, "Oh[ __] they got a bounty on my head in that country.

3:23 They want me dead." Yeah, that's bad.

3:25 Like, "Ah[ __] I didn't really want to do that much." No.

3:28 But then you go and you beat RDA and you become the interim champion.

3:31 That that I'm pretty certain you got

3:35 treated differently by everyone at that point.

3:37 How good did that feel to really switch the narrative, right?

3:40 Because you went from a guy, "I'm cutting him regardless." to now,

3:43 "This dude's the interim champ." You go from fight

3:46 you go you you go from maybe not having a job to all of a sudden you're

3:50 in a title fight and you're the interim champion.

3:52 Like could you even wrap your mind around it?

3:55 I couldn't, honestly.

3:56 It just everything was going downhill uphill.

4:00 I mean downhill so fastly.

4:01 All the things were starting to fall into place.

4:04 You know, President Trump had called me right afterwards and was like,

4:06 "Hey, I want to bring you to the Oval Office." And you know,

4:09 "I want you to deliver this belt to the Oval Office

4:11 in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue." And Dana White was showing me respect.

4:14 Hunter Campbell starts calling me.

4:16 He's like, "Hey, you're just going to deal with me from now on, you know,

4:18 you you want fights, we're going to talk about your business.

4:21 Like you you're not going to talk to matchmakers anymore.

4:23 I'm going to handle this business with you and we're going to separate

4:26 which fights are going to happen." So I was just like, "What?

4:28 Hunter Campbell's calling me now?" Like he's

4:30 the face that runs the place of this organization.

4:33 And now I have his personal line and like he's treating me like a manager,

4:36 like who I'm representing myself now.

4:38 It just everything started to fall into place.

4:40 I I started to get respect and people started to notice me,

4:43 you know, every fighter knew me in the company.

4:45 A lot of them hated me, but they still knew me.

4:46 And that's that's what I wanted to do.

4:48 I just wanted people to know me.

4:50 I just wanted people to care.

4:51 Whether they hated me or loved me didn't matter.

4:53 I just wanted them to care and be interested and want to watch me fight.

4:56 And if I did that, then I did my job and I and I did what I stood out to do.

4:59 Yeah.

5:00 And so then you get Kamaru Usman to notice you.

5:02 He hated you.

5:03 This was not this was not just a fighting This is not just fighting.

5:09 This was a real life rivalry, right?

5:13 What do you remember about that time in your life?

5:16 Oh man, that was it was a fun time, you know,

5:18 I I just remember, you know, really just enjoying the process, you know,

5:22 it was so fun to like be in a title fight

5:24 like in the highest level in the world like in a cage,

5:27 you know, like doing the UFC, you know, it just it was a dream come true,

5:31 you know, I was at that point I was officially living American dream.

5:34 I was my own boss, no one could tell me what to do.

5:36 I showed up when I wanted to show up.

5:38 I woke up when I wanted.

5:39 I dictated the terms of the way my future was going

5:42 to go and I just I remember loving it, you know,

5:44 and you know, it just it was a fun rivalry, you know,

5:47 there always needs to be a good guy bad guy in every story.

5:50 And and you know storylines better than anybody with WWE.

5:52 So I'm just happy that I created some history and made

5:56 big fights and and made him a ton of money,

5:57 you know, even though I hated him and we

5:59 we know we don't have a friendship or anything.

6:01 Did you guys really start to dislike each other down when it was happening?

6:04 Oh yeah, he I mean You couldn't stand You couldn't stand him.

6:07 I No, I couldn't stand him at all.

6:08 I just thought he was just very fake and arrogant and like like

6:11 it's one thing to like think you're the[ __] and like believe in yourself,

6:15 but it's another thing to like how you treat

6:16 others and like if you really have an ego.

6:19 Like I don't like people that have egos, you know,

6:21 and I think, you know, he has a little bit of an ego.

6:23 He thinks his his[ __] don't stink.

6:25 And I just, you know,

6:26 I think we should all be humble people because at the end of the day,

6:29 you know, we're all going to go to the same place, you know,

6:31 maybe some place some people different places than others,

6:34 but you know, I think that, you know,

6:36 we got to serve a purpose down here and make a big impact and, you know,

6:39 just be good children of God.

6:42 When you guys got into that first fight, it was crazy.

6:44 And then the New York fight was crazy.

6:45 It was like you had like such great fights.

6:49 But ultimately you fell a little bit short in those fights.

6:52 How did you deal with god dang, man, I was very close.

6:56 Because again, I say you and I share a lot of things in common.

7:00 We also were both All-Americans,

7:02 but didn't quite get over the hump and get a national championship.

7:05 And then it's like you get in these fights with these guys.

7:07 Obviously Jon Jones is a guy that I had the same type of emotions for.

7:11 It was very difficult for me to get back

7:13 on the horse to get back going in the right direction.

7:15 I was I was lucky, right?

7:16 Because he was just an a screw-up and he would get himself in trouble.

7:19 Then I would get to just fight for the belt that he wasn't there anymore.

7:22 But how difficult was it for you to bounce back after Kamaru's fights and like,

7:28 man, I still want to be the champ.

7:30 Because to me it's about proving I'm the best in the world.

7:33 Yeah.

7:33 On that night against RDA, you felt like the best in the world.

7:36 Yeah.

7:37 But after you lose that fight, obviously it's uh that's not that's not the case.

7:42 Yeah, you know, the first fight there was a lot of controversies, you know.

7:44 It was very close.

7:45 It was very close, you know, it was it was it was a clearly early stoppage.

7:48 I was in on a double leg intelligently defending myself with my hand

7:51 and he's hitting me in the back of the head for the last four

7:53 or five shots and I'm I'm putting my hand behind the back and then

7:56 I have I'm reaching out on a double leg and Mark Goddard just stops it.

8:00 It's one of the worst stoppages in the It still haunts you.

8:02 Oh.

8:03 No, it doesn't haunt me because, you know,

8:05 the consolation prize I made a lot of money, you know,

8:07 and you know, I have a great life, you know,

8:09 and and, you know, I'm set for life, you know, financially.

8:12 I don't ever have to do anything ever again if I

8:14 don't want to, but that competitive drive won't let me stop.

8:16 So uh it doesn't haunt me, you know,

8:19 it's just I'm so happy that I made it to that point,

8:21 Daniel, like no one ever thought I was going to be here.

8:23 No one thought I'd be in college.

8:24 No one thought I'd be an All-American.

8:26 They definitely never thought I'd get to the UFC and make

8:28 it to the top of the the world, you know,

8:30 at the top echelon of the world, but it doesn't haunt me,

8:34 you know, I everything happens for a reason.

8:36 I feel like everything is God's plan.

8:37 I just I trust his plan.

8:39 I know that he has the plan for me and, you know,

8:41 I need to be able to rise above it.

8:42 Don't let losses define who I am as a person, you know,

8:45 cuz then, you know, that that shows who your character what your character is.

8:48 And I want to show that, you know,

8:49 you can rise up and you can come back stronger.

8:51 And every loss is just a chance to learn.

8:53 So Yeah.

8:54 I learned from it, you know,

8:55 I realized there was a lot of controversy in that first fight.

8:57 I kicked him in the liver, like it was below above the belt line.

9:00 He called the nut shot.

9:00 He got a five-minute break.

9:02 That changes momentum.

9:03 We know how momentum works in sports.

9:05 The second fight in in Madison Square Garden, it was three to two,

9:07 but a lot of people thought I won three to very close fight.

9:10 Very close, you know.

9:10 Very close fight.

9:11 one round that he really won, the second.

9:13 The rest of the fight, you know, I thought I won.

9:15 So it's up to the eyes of the viewers, you know, and I think the viewers,

9:19 you know, they showed a lot of love for me and they showed that hey,

9:22 a lot of people voiced their support saying, "Hey,

9:24 Colby thought they thought I won the fight."

9:26 So like that gave me some satisfaction.

9:28 That that let me feel like, "Hey,

9:30 my hard work paid off." And like maybe they didn't

9:33 maybe I didn't win that night and get that undisputed title,

9:34 but a lot of people thought I was

9:35 the undisputed champ and that's what's most important.

9:38 Yeah.