Chael Sonnen had predicted the UFC 296 pre-fight press conference to be a ‘sh*t show’ featuring Colby Covington and the other fighters on the card.
The UFC vet’s prediction did come true, but no one could have expected Covington to go so low as to take a dig at Leon Edwards‘ deceased father.
Things almost got out of hand with Leon Edwards instantaneously going for Covington on stage. A timely security intervention prevented matters from escalating but Edwards’ reaction clearly showed Covington had crossed a line.
The UFC welterweight champion lost his father when he was just 13 years old. This tragedy struck the Edwards household four years after they had left Jamaica to make a life in Birmingham.
The champion once explained how his father was shot dead in a nightclub over “something to do with money.” A phone call at around 2 am in October 2004, and his mom crying soon afterward, Leon Edwards remembers that fateful night vividly.
So when Covington brought up his late father in his trash-talk, ‘Rocky’ did not think twice before going at his opponent on the spot.
Colby Covington re-opens old wounds with distasteful remark
If trash-talking was a sport, Colby Covington would certainly compete for the highest accolades. True to form, on Thursday, Covington was doing his best to get under the skin of his opponent in a verbal exchange with Edwards when he suddenly blurted out the lines, “On Saturday night, I’m going to bring you to a place you never want to be,” Covington shouted, “I’m going to bring you to the seventh level of hell. We’ll say ‘what’s up’ to your dad while we’re there.”
On hearing Covington’s comment, Edwards couldn’t control himself and launched a water bottle instantly at “Chaos” and jumped up to confront him. But before it came to blows, security stepped in to separate the two fighters.
“I know he did wrong, getting involved in crime, and it led to his demise. ” Edwards once said in an interview. He even spoke profoundly about his mother, as well as understanding the consequences of his late father’s absence. Here’s what the champ had to say.
Leon Edwards talks about the night his father died
“My mum, she’s a tough lady, you know, being a single mum,” Leon Edwards once said in a conversation. It’s tough being a single mother but even tougher was the way Edwards found out about his father’s passing. “It was probably like 2 in the morning. I was in my room. She was in her room. We hear the phone ringing. I heard her crying, and I knew from then something bad, you know.”
The young man in Edwards found it best not to rush into his mother’s room and start asking questions. It was a tough time for his entire family as a whole. ‘Rocky’ said that he knew what kind of life his father lived, and the incident only pushed him further into taking that road himself.
Fortunately, his mother made him take up MMA to keep him away from a life of crime. Years later, she is the mother of the UFC’s welterweight champion who is preparing to make his second title defense this weekend at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Will he succeed? Will he make Covington pay for that low blow during the press conference? We’ll find out in a matter of hours.