The two met outside a fighter hotel in Sydney ahead of Werdum’s recent contest with Marcin Tybura when words being exchanged. Werdum had reportedly taken issue with Covington’s comments about Brazilian’s being ‘filthy animals,’ and approached the welterweight to voice his anger.
It’s been well documented that the Werdum threw a boomerang at the UFC prospect after claiming that Covington hurled an ethnically-charged insult at him outside of the fighter hotel. That’s assault!
Well, it turns out it’s only ‘common assault’ in Australian law, and even without returning to Australia to face the charges in court, former UFC heavyweight champion Werdum was only fined $600 for the incident (around USD 460).
The UFC has yet to determine if sanctions will be imposed. It should be noted that they conduct their own investigation if Werdum indeed violated some guidelines on the company’s Athlete Conduct Policy.
Covington releases a word to the verdict to MMAjunkie by saying the following:
“Guilty as charged. He’s lucky I told them to take it easy on him,” Covington said in his statement.
Werdum went on to beat Tybura by unanimous decision at UFC Sydney. The incident happened during fight week of the event.
