Chael Sonnen: Colby Covington Could Set The Trend For Other Fighters Looking to Self-Promote
Love him or hate him, Colby Covington has transformed himself from a relatively unknown wrestler into one of the most talked-about fighters on the Ultimate Fighting Championship roster.
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Sonnen, who was a recent guest on Monday’s The MMA Hour, told host Luke Thomas that Covington’s methods may set the trend for other fighters. Sonnen has a perspective on Covington that few can match, thanks to his own status both as a self-invented villain and a fellow college wrestler from Oregon who has known Covington since long before either made the move to MMA.
“In many ways, he’s going to reinvent the sport,” Sonnen said. “Is
that for better or worse? Time will tell, and then you can decide.
But people are going to start copying him. He’s the first guy ever
to come out and say, ‘I’m just here to entertain you.’ So, yes,
it’s an act, and yes, it’s a performance, but here it is and you
guys seem to enjoy it. He’s the first guy. The only guy who ever
did that in wrestling was The Rock. Everybody else stayed in
character and held the old kayfabe montage.
“But he’s the first guy to come out and go, ‘Look, I’m just looking to entertain you,’” Sonnen added. "If the UFC isn’t going to bring me cameras, I’ll hire my own production crew, I’ll pay them, but I’m going to get this content recorded and out to the masses.’
“They’re scripted promos,” Sonnen continued. “He’ll admit they’re scripted promos -- another thing that only The Rock would do, nobody else would ever admit to. And I think that he’s having fun. Now, I’ve known him since he was 11 years old -- it’s going to be very hard for him to do anything that upsets me, because I just understand it a little bit differently. But I do think we’re going to see guys start to copy him. I think he’s an innovator in many ways. And again, is that a good thing or a bad thing? We’ll find out. But he does get credit, from me at least, for coming in and changing it. He is the first guy I’ve ever seen who has hired his own camera companies to come and go, ‘Hey UFC, you’re not going to do this for me? Great, no problem. I got some money, I’ll make a phone call. I’ll set the shot up myself.’ I think it’s interesting and it’s clearly working.”
Covington’s divisive approach to self-promotion has certainly polarized fight fans, whether he’s denigrating the country of Brazil, spoiling the plot of a popular movie or supporting U.S. President Donald Trump. It’s hard to argue it isn't working for him, as Covington is fast becoming a household name in the UFC due to the way he conducts himself in and out of the Octagon.
“I don’t know [why people say it’s not working],” Sonnen said. “You’ll hear that. That is one of the stages of this. I remember going through it too, and I had some advice from ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper, who said, ‘Hey, over time, they’re going to love you for the same stuff they hate you for today.’ And, sure enough, if I wasn’t delivering vitriol at times, they were disappointed. The same stuff that they hated me for. And just what Roddy Piper had told me, turned out to be true. So, fans aren’t always going to recognize it.
“Fans don’t even know what they want at times,” Sonnen continued. “I hear fans say that they don’t want the talking and all of these things, but zero of those fans are watching these shows on mute. Even they don’t know, it’s a subconscious thing, they’re not aware that it is what they like. The fight takes 15 minutes. The build-up takes 90 days. It takes that for a reason. You and I are on this show with your massive audience for a reason, and we’re not throwing punches at one another. So, fans themselves don’t even know what it is they like and what it is they want, and they don’t need to. That’s not an insult. The fans get a pass. But it is up to the performer to be able to see through that and deliver his message.”
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