You knew it was coming. Of course President Trump was gonna call Colby Covington if he’d won Saturday night at UFC on ESPN+ 36.
Covington had his way with former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, en route to a dominant fifth-round TKO win (because of injury) at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Afterward, Covington – who loves him some Trump – was in the middle of an interview with Megan Olivi on the ESPN+ post-fight show, and that’s when a phone was handed to him.
Covington lit up like a pinball machine when he found out it was Trump.
“You are a great fighter, man,” Trump said on speaker. “I’ll tell you, you make it so easy. I don’t know how you do it.”
“You gave me the dragon energy when you shook my hand on Sunday at your rally,” Covington responded. “It doesn’t matter if King Kong is in front of me. I was not gonna lose after getting to shake your hand.”
This went on for another two minutes or so. Trump said he rushed out of a rally tonight so he could catch the main event.
“I’m your fan; you’re my fan. Two of a kind,” Trump told Covington.
You can watch their conversation in the video below (via Twitter):
President Trump called @ColbyCovMMA during the #UFCVegas11 post show
pic.twitter.com/FJsUMQV8Xk
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) September 20, 2020
I mean, usually phone calls to athletes from the President of the United States are reserved for monumental achievements, like winning championships or breaking hallowed record. But, hey, winning a UFC Fight Night headliner is good enough for this one.
Covington – along with UFC president Dana White, Justin Gaethje, Henry Cejudo, and MMA manager Ali Abdelaziz – attended a Trump rally in Nevada earlier this week, and each of them got a shoutout from Trump.
So, really, this comes as no surprise.
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