Covington Was Puking Leading Up To Usman Fight
Colby Covington revealed he was suffering from food poisoning during the fight week leading up to UFC 245 in December.
Covington challenged current welterweight champion Kamaru Usman in the main event but would ultimately succumb to a fifth-round TKO defeat after a back-and-forth war. Some felt the stoppage was a little controversial with Covington later pinning the full blame on his defeat towards referee Marc Goddard.
However, there was another factor that contributed to the loss according to Covington and that was one of the meals the UFC had prepared for him.
“People don’t even realize, I’m not making excuses. … I haven’t really told anybody, but the UFC was preparing meals for me all fight week and I ended up getting really sick of one of their meals,” Covington said in a recent interview. “I think they didn’t cook the chicken very good, and I got food poisoning like two nights before the fight. I’m puking like 30 times, I puked like literally 30 times.”
Covington claims he was even thinking of pulling out but didn’t at the advice of his manager Dan Lambert. He also adds that the food poisoning played a role in his decision not to wrestle with Usman.
“I was like ‘fuck,’ I told my manager, I was like, ‘Dan Lambert, man, I’m going to have to pull out of the fight, man,'” Covington explained. “He’s like ‘no, you can’t pull out man, you’re the main event. You can’t ruin this for the UFC, you just need to go through with it.’ I ended up going through with it, but I didn’t feel my best. That kind of played into the decision not to wrestle [Usman] because I didn’t feel strong. I didn’t feel my typical ‘100 percent, I’m ready to go, we’re going to get into a fight.’
“It’s like I was holding back a little bit because I knew I was puking, my liver, my intestines were all messed up and I wasn’t at full strength. So what I’m trying to say, is that I was on my worst day and ‘Marty Fakenewsman’ was on his best day and I still beat him. So you can imagine what’s going to happen in the rematch when I’m at my best and he’s at whatever level he’s at and I’m not fighting against two guys [the referee]. It’s going to be a completely different outcome.”
As it stands, Covington may have to wait as it looks like his former teammate and friend Jorge Masvidal will be getting the next title shot.
