Colby Covington called in the big guns to help him promote his fight this weekend.
On Saturday, UFC Tampa goes down from the Amalie Arena, headlined by Covington taking on Joaquin Buckley in a top-10 welterweight contest. On Friday morning, both main event fighters successfully made weight, but for the ceremonial weigh-ins in the afternoon, Covington had something special planned, calling in UFC Hall of Famer Chael Sonnen to do the talking for him.
After facing off with Buckley for the final time, UFC commentator Brendan Fitzgerald attempted to get one last quote from the former interim champion, but Covington deferred to Sonnen, who cut a vintage promo.
“I came to tell you, when you’re the greatest fighter in the world today, they’ve got a name for you,” Sonnen said. “They don’t call you a great fighter, they call you ‘Chaos’ Covington, only in the octagon, 10 ET, 7 PT, and only on ESPN.”
Sonnen is one of the greatest trash talkers in UFC history, blurring the lines between MMA and professional wrestling with his post-fight promos and mic work. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame earlier this year for his legendary fight with Anderson Silva at UFC 117.
For his part, Buckley also did his best to hype the fight, promising to end Covington’s career on Saturday.
“At the end of the day, this dude’s been quiet,” Buckley said. “He plays a character, and now he wants to be soft with it. So at the end of the day, we’re going to go out in that cage and retire this man and send his ass off to Twitch.”
Check out the full face-off in the video above.
