We're Daring Colby Covington To Take That Last Step, Truth Is He Already Has

Colby Covington has already made things bigger than his opponents, there's nowhere to go but up, or is that down?

Colby Covington went out and did his thing on Saturday afternoon against Robbie Lawler. The former interim welterweight champion, whose accessories for this fight card included an obsolete UFC belt and the president’s large adult sons, took it to ex-champion Robbie Lawler for 25 minutes in the main event of UFC on ESPN 5. Covington then did his other thing, which is to say he made an effort to play the role of the promotion's supreme scoundrel. 

"Let's talk about the lesson we learned tonight," Covington said during his post-fight interview with Jon Anik. "It's a strong lesson that Robbie should have learned from his good buddy Matt Hughes. You stay off the tracks when the train is coming through, junior. Don't matter if it's the Trump train or the Colby train, get out the way."

Judging from the reaction he drew from the sparse crowd inside the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey and online, Covington's remark about Hughes, who suffered severe injuries when his truck was hit by a train in June 2017, accomplished its goal of getting a reaction — any reaction.

After the win, the MMA world should have been talking about how good Covington looked in putting a relentless pace on Lawler for the full fight. The discussion should have been how that style will hold up when he gets his wished for fight against current champ Kamaru Usman. Instead, the focus was on Covington's role as the rapscallion of the fight game and just where the line is when it comes to his trash talk. 

The thing is, we know where that line is. Khabib Nurmagomedov showed us that when, after choking out Conor McGregor at UFC 229, he went a little bit nuts and launched himself into the crowd in pursuit of McGregor's friend and cornerman, Dillon Danis. That line is when the focus moves from an opponent to something bigger than that opponent. In the case of Nurmagomedov, it was his religion and ethnic background. 

Covington has already "joked" about the possibility of deporting Usman, whose family immigrated to the United States when he was a young boy, "back to Nigeria." Covington also called the country of Brazil a dump before labeling the Brazilian people “filthy animals.” Covington has already stepped over the same line that McGregor did and made it about more than his opponent. Don't think he won't do the same thing when he gets booked to fight Usman. 

"There is trash-talking in every sport," UFC president Dana White said after UFC 229. "They do it in the NBA and the NFL. They do it in baseball. It is part of the game. That is never going to change here. We're never going to tell anybody what they can or can't say. That's never going to change."

Despite White seeming to give UFC fighters free reign when it comes to selling a fight, most UFC competitors still keep their trash talk focused on their opponents. Sure, that jabbering can get ugly and nasty, but it usually doesn't get to the point where ethnicity and/or religion come into play. Covington has already shown us that he doesn't respect those lines. And at this point, the former interim champ almost has no choice but to take it as far as he can go. He's built his entire personae around that fact and now that he's so close to a title fight, the only option Covington has is to take those last few steps to whatever is on the other side of insufferable prick. 

The real question is, will the UFC do anything about it if and when Covington does take those last few steps?