MMA Fighter Jorge Masvidal Faces Possible Felony Battery Charges After Allegedly Punching UFC Rival Colby Covington Outside A Miami Restaurant
Although MMA fighters Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington were once training buddies and even best friends, the two UFC icons have quickly drifted to enemy territory.
Covington unanimously won their much-talked-about fight in March 2022’s UFC 272 event, and has since written insulting social media posts aimed at Masvidal. For one, the California-born champ posted a fight photo on Instagram where he can be seen punching Masvidal in the face, captioning it with, “How’s that humble pie taste Phony Montana?”
Covington has continued to post downright savage photos of their epic fight, tagging Masvidal in more than 10 posts that show him getting punched, kicked, and pinned down.
The fighter shared the posts with captions like, “Street Judas’ career in critical condition, might not make it,” “Out Struck. Out Wrestled. Out Classed” and “At least you tried…” With fans writing comments ranging from “He looked scared there,” to “I’m kinda low key enjoying that he hasn’t let this go yet” to even “bro tagging him in every post too,” it’s clear Masvidal began to take the post-fight talk to heart.
At the UFC 272’s press conference, Masvidal said he was ready to get back at Covington on the streets one day after the #1 UFC welterweight talked about his family.
Masvidal said, “he’s still somebody that if I see him out in the streets, I’m going to give him everything I’ve got to break his f****** jaw.” And many people understood the sentiment: in an interview with Michael Bisping before the UFC fight, Covington called Masvidal a “deadbeat dad,” continuing, “he doesn’t even talk to his kids. He’s tried to erase the mother of his children and his wife still legally on paper — Marisa Masvidal from the history of the internet.”
In the same interview, Covington also said, “[Masvidal is] a thief, he’s a criminal. He’s done so many people wrong, not just myself, he’s backstabbed so many people that are close to me. His family, his relatives, his mom, his own mother. He didn’t even talk about his mom because he threw her under the bus like the guy’s piece of s**t.”
While his comments were definitely very incendiary and even savage, Masvidal did something on Monday, March 21 that no one expected — actually take his beef with Covington to another level outside of the ring.
On Monday, Masvidal allegedly sucker-punched Covington outside of Miami’s Papi Steak restaurant, with Covington telling police he was “attacked by Jorge Masvidal” and that he “ran up to him from his left and without notice punched him with a closed fist two times in the face.”
The Miami Beach Police report says Masvidal now faces possible felony battery charges, the situation is now under “criminal investigation,” and that Covington was punched in both the mouth and left eye.
Covington told police that Masvidal said, “you shouldn’t have been talking about my kids,” and that he recognized him even though Masvidal was wearing a surgical face mask and a hoodie. Saying he knew it was Masvidal by his voice and parts of his hair sticking out, the situation was potentially even more dangerous: “three or four other unknown males” also approached with an “aggressive manner.”
While the California welterweight and self-professed “King of Miami” has a fracture in his left front tooth and an abrasion on his left wrist, it is still unclear if he will press charges. Meanwhile, eyewitness Adam Weiss told WPLG Local 10 News that although Covington was punched several times, “what stood out right away was how he didn’t even go down.”
TMZ Sports obtained a video of Covington after the incident, describing how Masvidal was “over here swinging, trying to come at me, and I ran…” He also asked, “how would [Masvidal] know I’m here?”
Meanwhile, Masvidal posted a video saying, “call this the show your face challenge… what’s up, I’m from Dade county. You talk that s*** you’ve got to back it up. That’s how my city rolls.” On Tuesday, the Cuban-American Miami-bred fighter also wrote a tweet that seemed to reference the altercation: “Good morning to everyone except those that think talking about someone’s kids is cool.”
