By The long-unanticipated grudge match between two-time UFC Welterweight Title loser Jorge Masvidal and two-time UFC Welterweight Title loser Colby Covington is set to go down tediously at UFC 272, and, with the former friends and teammates now bitter enemies, American Top Team owner Dan Lambert has regrets over how telling Colby to be a bit racist also led to problems within the gym. Lambert, who encouraged Covington to turn his noxious personality up to 11 to avoid being cut from the UFC and suggested taking shots at certain fighters and countries, was dismayed when telling an irredeemable asshole to be even more of one proved to make him a quite unpleasant and unwelcome teammate.
“Look, it’s all fun and games sowing classist xenophobia for a cheap pop,” said Lambert, “Who hasn’t leveraged casual bigotry for self promotion? But to then take shots at his teammates? That’s just unforgivable and really shows the kind of person Colby truly is.”
Although Lambert admitted that it was not ideal to create a war within the fight team at his gym, he said there was just no way to predict that encouraging a terrible person to be terrible for attention would go badly, or that advising him to take dehumanizing shots at an entire country might cause friction in a gym with many fighters from that country.
