Jon Jones calls college roommate Colby Covington a 'habitual liar' and 'rotten person'
After years of posturing and challenging and winning, Colby Covington will get his first shot at a real UFC title on Saturday when he faces Kumaru Usman for the welterweight belt.
It seems safe to say at least one champ won’t be in his corner. Funnily enough, it might be the champ that knows him best.
Jon Jones is not a fan of Colby Covington
During a press conference for his light heavyweight title defense against Dominick Reyes at UFC 247, the topic came up of Jones’ experience with Covington as a roommate when the two were wrestlers at Iowa Central Community College.
Covington has garnered fame and infamy for his vocal support of President Donald Trump (which has been reciprocated), and he has admitted his persona is “part of the entertainment aspect of the business.”
Asked if Covington is really the person he purports to be, Jones didn’t hesitate to lay into the fighter’s character:
"Colby's a habitual liar at the end of the day. He really is. He told the fans that we lived together for two years. We lived together for one semester. I've made a lot of mistakes and a lot of people don't consider me to be a good person, but Colby's a really bad person. He really is. He really, really is. There's no coincidence that Tyron Woodley got to know him and hates him. [Jorge] Masvidal got to know him and hates him. I got to live with him and really don’t like him. If any of you guys got to know him, he really is a rotten person. I think the MMA community has gotten to see it over the years.
Yeah, going to pretty hard to misread that one.
Jones admitted that he has made mistakes in the past — a hit-and-run, steroid suspensions, a strip club incident and DUI all come to mind —then proceeds to say that he and other fighters who have gotten to know Covington all dislike him. While some could potentially attribute that to political differences, it’s worth noting Masvidal is also a public supporter of Trump.
This isn’t the first time Jones has criticized Covington, and Covington hasn’t hesitated to throw out Jones’ past to publicly fight back against the MMA great, having called Jones “the biggest piece of s--- in all of sports.”
You can imagine he’ll follow a similar playbook in responding to this latest volley from Jones.
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