Colby Covington shocked the Sao Paulo crowd on Saturday night with his unanimous decision victory over Brazil’s Demian Maia at UFC Fight Night 119. However, the fighter did not truly get a reaction from the arena until his post-fight interview.
Directly after the fight, Covington went on to call Brazil a “dump” and citizens of Brazil “filthy animals.” Now Demian Maia has come forward with his thoughts on the situation.
In the night’s post-fight press conference, as transcribed by MMA Junkie, Maia explained that Covington spoke with him earlier in the week about his trash-talking.
“Since the beginning of the week, he said he respected me a lot, and he wahttps://mmaimports.com/category/ufc-news/ufc-results/s promoting the fight, and that was his way of promoting. He told me I’m a legend, and he admires me and he only does that for promoting.”
Maia then admitted that he did not hear what Covington said in his post-fight interview, but commented on the fighter’s other remarks.
“Obviously, it’s not my style. I don’t like that style. But I don’t judge him. I think he’s free to do whatever he wants to promote. What matters is he was respectful. He was correct to come and talk to me, so there’s no problem.”
Maia continued:
“A lot of fighters make misakes about working their image and how they market themselves. I think there’s a way of promoting yourself like (Conor) McGregor, with intelligence, like (Chael) Sonnen used to do. But I think it’s a fine line between destroying your image or building your image in the long run. I think people are thinking short term, and besides that, McGregor’s style is risky.
“(Sonnen) was a very tough fighter. He almost beat Anderson (Silva) at his height, and I see a lot of friends of mine who don’t follow fighting, and they used to say, Sonnen just talks and he’s not that good. He created that image. He created that image so much for himself that people don’t think he’s that good. So I think it’s a risk when you do that.”
