Colby Covington was last seen inside the octagon at UFC 296 back in December 2023 where welterweight champion Leon Edwards thoroughly dominated him at his own game. It’s November 2024 now! So where has he been all this time? It’s not like Colby to stay shut, win or lose.
It turns out, that the ardent MAGA supporter was by the side of the 47th President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump. Covington had been spotted a few times at MAGA rallies, but today is the first time he has officially answered his absence from the UFC.
The former welterweight title contender explained that everything he did was for “God and country“, which he believes to be more important than his own ‘selfish agenda’ i.e., to go win UFC fights and world titles in the promotion. “That doesn’t matter if we don’t have a country to live in”, he adds.
The fighter has been on the campaign trail as Trump continued to advance on his territories while the democrats, led by Kamala Harris sought the support of other Republicans like Liz Cheney and George W. Bush, among others.
Explaining the gratification he felt from being a tiny part of the presidential campaign, Covington further explains,
“So the most important thing in my life in the last 8-9 months has been the campaign trail… Being a little, tiny part of the Trump campaign and trying to help him get elected any way possible.”
Now, whether or not, he played any role in Trump being elected again after 4 years is a discussion for another day. But Covington is relieved to have gotten what he wanted from the trail, the election, and the people of America.
“First and foremost…putting the power back in the people’s hands. That’s how the forefathers in America intended it to be… for people to have the power, not big government… Less government and we want more rights for the people, our constitutional rights that our forefathers fought for”
Covington has been an openly MAGA supporter for a very long time, but he was dedicated to the point where he was even feuding with fellow Trump supporters like Jorge Masvidal and Sean Strickland among other fighters.
However, in a bittersweet twist of fate, Trump, since UFC 302, has at least twice admitted the former lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov as his favorite fighter.
Twist of Fate
It’s not difficult to be a Khabib fan. For a man of Trump’s stature, who revels in his victories, supporting a fighter who has never lost ever in his entire professional career is not much of a stretch. But given the 47th president-elect’s stance on Muslims, something about Khabib must have really impressed him. So much so that he can’t stop talking about him.
The two met for the first time in the aftermath of a bloodied Islam Makhachev successfully defending his title against Dustin Poirier at UFC 302, where the undefeated Dagestani shook the President’s hand and requested him to stop the war once he was elected.
During an interview following the event, Trump talked about how much he loved Khabib’s undefeated streak and said,
“I think Khabib [is my favorite fighter]. I mean, how good is he? Khabib was 29 [or] 28 and 0, and then his father died and he stopped. I don’t think he ever lost a round. He fought many times, he never lost a round.”
Nobody has yet asked how Covington feels about that one. He had once famously gone on about how Khabib avoided the welterweight division because he didn’t want to fight “the man”. Perhaps the President-elect managed to change his mind during the campaign trail.