– Brazil you're a dump. All of you filthy animals suck. I got one thing to say. – This is the moment that
saved Colby Covington's career. That's him four years before that, completely broke and inspecting
price tags at Wholefoods. – 12 bucks a thing? – [Male Voice] What is that? – [Colby] That's six bucks a thing. – And this is him today. – Greetings nerds and virgins, America's champ is back. – So what happened to him? Back in 2011, Colby is
fresh off a dominant stay at Oregon State University
in D1 wrestling. – I always had Olympic aspirations to be an Olympic champion in wrestling, but I was getting in a lot of
street fights in high school. And my mom pulled me like
whipped me in the side, gave me some spankings
with a wooden spoon. And she was like, if you want to fight, go get paid to fight.
– He graduates in sociology, which for the record is a
science of social interactions and its consequences on human behavior. – And then as soon as I
got done with college, I decided to go into MMA full time. – He receives a phone call from one of the best mixed
martial arts gyms in the world, American Top Team. – They flew me down, got me a house, put me on a stipend for
food every week and- – He joins the gym and meets the man that would later be known as
the one and only street Jesus, Jorge Masvidal. (upbeat music) The two fighters are training together, Colby even crashes on Jorge's couch. (indistinct chatter) Their friendship develops as they push each other
to become better fighters. – [Masvidal] What we have here is a debate between two great
complete different minds. I got one opinion, Colby has his. I believe you gotta be
nasty in the bedroom. The nastier the better. Colby's on the complete opposite spectrum when it comes to his
business in the bedroom.
– The legs are up here, hold under, uh-uh, uh. – [Masvidal] If he can do
it, I can do it better. – [Woman] Do it again. Come on, you can do it. – Uh. – [Masvidal] I don't know
why I'm so competitive. I should have given up on jump number two when there was clearly no
way I'd be able to do it. – [Woman] No. – [Masvidal] Fuck off. – Your legs are shut. – I'm gonna jerk off, I'll be
light and then I could do it. – You already jerked
off twice today, dude. How many times do you
need to jerk off in a day? – Where's Colby at? Still asleep? – They become part of each other's team. So Colby helps Masvidal cut
weight before his fights, and Masvidal corners for Colby
in his first few pro fights. (soft music)
(crowd applauds and cheers) – That's my roomie, that's my best friend right there.
I ain't gotta worry about
nobody grinding on me after I got him on me. – The UFC signs Masvidal in 2013 and Colby only a year later. (dramatic music) – Yeah, I really like Colby's attitude. Humble, hardworking, trains out of American Top Team – They started crushing the competition and they're living the dream. – Nicest suite in the Palms. Yes, that's us. That's fucking crazy. – I got second pick though, dawg. – [Commentator] This is Colby, division one all American wrestler. An excellent- – [Colby] I've never been
so excited in my life. (indistinct crosstalk) (dramatic music) (indistinct fight commentary) – Thank you. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. – Colby loses for the
first time at UFC 194. – [Commentator 1] Colby,
he's got that foot again. – [Commentator 2] Warlley has won two of his last three UFC fights
with that killer (indistinct) – [Commentator 1] Oh, he's got it tight. He's got it tight. Colby's in big trouble. (ominous music) He's stuck, mate. He's stuck. – [Commentator 2] It is all over just like that. – [Commentator 3] That is a professional mixed martial artist. – [Commentator 1] Exactly. – Ladies and gentleman, Referee Mark Smith has called (indistinct audio fades away).
(ominous music) – In his first eight fights in the UFC, Colby Covington only lost once. Yet right before his fight
against Demian Maia in 2017, he heard some heartbreaking news. – I'd never told the story
before but three fights ago before I fought the number
two guy in the world, this guy named Demian Maia in Brazil, they had told my manager, Dan Lambert, that they weren't gonna re-sign me. They didn't like my style, they didn't like that
I wasn't entertaining. – They had him scheduled to be cut. – Because the league
considered him too boring. – Because we don't like
you, you're not a character. None of the fans care
about your fighting style. No one cares about your personality. So- – We're gonna cut you, even if you win and he's like fuck. – How did that make you feel at the time? – It hurt, you know, but that's what this business is, man. It's a ruthless business. – And then he is in
Brazil with Demian Maia. – I knew I had to make a change. I had to do something that was
gonna get the fans involved- – So at the edge of the precipice, Colby took the biggest risk of his life.
– I had to do something drastic that was gonna get the fans
and everybody hyped up. – And he starts talking mad shit. – You either die a hero or you live long enough to see
yourself become the villain. – [Interviewee] And he starts fuck you, you fucking filthy animals- – And Brazil, you're a dump. Brazil, you're a dump, all you filthy animals suck. I got one thing to say, Tyron
Woodley, I'm coming for you. If you don't answer the front
door, I'm gonna knock it in and I'm gonna take what's
mine, that Welterweight belt. – And everyone shout, what? They're going crazy. – Colby Covington. – We ain't got any time, we ain't translating tonight, baby. All you know is bring me my belt, where are you at Tyron Woodley? – Colby Covington, my God. – Oh, you racist, you said
Brazilians are filthy animals. I'm like, uh, Brazil is
not a race, it's a country. And they used filthy
animals in "Home Alone".
So it's just- – Yeah, filthy animals. – Yeah, filthy animals. Keep the change you filthy animal. – Keep the change you filthy animal. – And then the next thing you know, the UFC is like, okay, what's next? – Now you might think
that the UFC is terrible for operating this way, but the decision not
to cut Colby Covington after he said what he said, actually has very little
to do with the league and a lot to do with us, the audience. Let's let Google Trends show you the power of being controversial. This flat line represents
the search volume for Colby Covington before
his arrival in the UFC. This bump in search right here
is his debut in August, 2014. The smaller bump right
here is the second fight three months later.
His first loss here, Jonathan Meunier, Max Griffin and Dong Hyun Kim. Now look at what happened when he insulted an entire country. – [Voice Of Colby] Brazil, you're a dump. All you filthy animals suck. I got one thing to say- – That promo went so
viral on the internet, the UFC is like, we have to keep him. So that's what saved my career. And that was the turning
point in my career, and the rest has been history- – That's crazy. – And then he's like, okay,
I got a character now. – So naturally he just
kept on cranking it up. (soft music) And then he starts wearing
the fucking MAGA hat. And he brings girls around
for all these photo shoots. – Greetings nerds and virgins. Greetings nerds and virgins. No one cares about you
Marty, you're boring, man. – What's the possibility tonight? Let's do it tonight.
– Let's do it right now. (indistinct crosstalk) – GSP is a bum, he's in Canada eating poutine. I'm in America, eating poontang. Dilbert, lightweight. Chiesa, another lightweight. (indistinct crosstalk) – Okay, take your shades off,
buddy, you look like an idiot.
– So just a week after the Brazil agate, his friend Masvidal actually
loses a second fight in the row and he begins what would turn
out to be a two-year break away from the octagon. So just as Colby rises to fame, Masvidal fades away. – I am Tyron Woodley's father. The Knicks had tarnished the legacy of Madison Square Garden. Dustin "Doofus" Poirier, he's a soy boy. – I don't sell out like
fucking Colby Covington. – Jones he looks like he's
still doing the same thing that he always does, you
know, cocaine, hookers. – Colby is a really bad person. He really is. – Conor McGregor? – Oh the Irish leprechaun. Come on, man. The guy's gonna be in jail
soon for (beep) women. – No comments on the
children or the women. – I'm looking to fight
Whittaker, he's a bum. The kid with the little pubes
on his face, Snake Paul. Ain't got nothing to say to uncle Fester, and he's not going to wrap that belt around my waist on Saturday night. I can promise you that.
– Good luck with that. He's a big mother fucking idiot. – I hear Colby's a really nice guy. – Stop identifying as Wonderboy. You're not a boy, you're
a 40 year old man. And you drive kids around
your little karate truck. And then Khabib, come on, man. The sheep lover. – Colby's a terrible person. I've been telling you guys. – Ben Askren? – You said it wrong, it's Ben Ass-Cream. – Is that really it? – Yeah, that's the 37 year old Napoleon Dynamite-looking virgin. That's the one who use science
and test tubes these days to get kids.
'cause he's a virgin still. – But he has kids. – Yeah, exactly, science. Wait till I see you next
time running fake news, man. You're dead. You're dead. – What he's done is just
insult everybody and anybody, get a lot of people talking about him and then fuck people up. He fucks with their head, they don't want to lose to this guy. They don't want to hear him talk shit. After he beats your ass, he's gonna still talk shit. What we're seeing is a
masterclass in promotion and adaptation. It's so obviously a character,
but it doesn't matter. He's making it seem like he's a goof and you don't notice along the way that this guy's stomping
world-class fighters.
I mean stomping them. He's fucking amazing. – Did you ever anticipate that
it would get as big as this, that you would make as many
headlines as you are making? – I didn't think it
was gonna get that big. – Nothing wrong with
being a virgin and a nerd. (laughing) – And the audience hates it and loves it. So why do we, as humans, respond
so highly to controversy? This is a Valence-Arousal model. Here's a simplified version of it. Valence really is just a fancy way of expressing whether an
emotion is positive or negative. Arousal describes
whether it's high energy, meaning exciting or agitating, or low energy like soothing or calming. The Journal of Marketing Research
published a study in 2012, about what makes online content go viral.
The study looked at the
popularity of 7,000 articles from the New York Times, cross comparing their virality with measurements of
their valence and arousal. They found that emotions
that were on the higher end of arousal were positively
linked to virality. While passive emotions were
negatively linked to virality. It showed that more anxiety
and anger-inducing stories were more likely to be shared, proving that content that
evokes high arousal emotions, regardless of positive or
negative valence, go more viral. So it doesn't matter whether
it makes you feel good or bad. If it arouses you, if it gets you in an active state, you will react, interact,
discuss it, share it. – You gotta make them care, whether they love you or hate you. You just don't want them
to be in the middle.
– That's exactly what
controversy induces in us, the audience. So let's take this statement by Covington. – We need to get control
of big tech and the media. They're manipulating our kids. – If you disagree with him, you're likely to fall in
the upper left quadrant, experiencing a negative emotion like anger while still being aroused. If you agree with this statement, you're likely to find it amusing
or perhaps even inspiring, which would place you on
the upper right quadrant, positive and high arousal. No matter if you agree or
not with this statement, it most likely puts you
in a high arousal state. – When you come on, I
think it triggers people. – Which translate into action, which translate into discussing, sharing and spreading it. – I'm getting people
emotionally invested in, that's something that none of
these other fighters can say. People love me or hate me,
you will tune in to watch me. You will get a feeling for me. – I guess the degree in
Sociology came in handy.
– The whole thing about this sport is how many people are
going to watch you fight. It's a complicated thing for people, because they think,
well, the best fighters should make the most money. Then you go, yeah. But the best fighter
doesn't put the most asses in the seats. It's prize fighting, but
it's also entertainment. – All the people that hate me, they want to see me fail
and get knocked out.
All the people that love me, they want to see me get
my hand raised and win so- – If you're wondering how mainstream media paired with social media
has been polarizing and dividing the country
in the past few years, no need to look too far from there. But hey, that's for another video, make sure you subscribe
if you want to watch it. After his break from fighting, Masvidal comes back to
the UFC, a different man. – The resurrection, he went on this reality show
and he was a fucking nightmare. And he was like in the jungle, but it gave him a lot of
chance to think about his life and realize that maybe some things have been holding him back.
The one thing that had
been holding him back was he was trying not to
lose versus trying to win. And then he just decided, look,
I'm gonna fucking go for it. – And he does this. ♪ Look at me, I'm about to be rich ♪ (crowd cheering) (upbeat music) (indistinct commentary) – The flying knee turns Masvidal
into an instant superstar. – Has life changed already? Like you feel- – Dramatically. – How so? – Life changed dramatically- – Catapulting him as a
contender for the belt and in doing so placing
him in direct competition with Colby.
And this is how Colby reacts. – I don't know what you
make of Colby Covington, we wanna play some sound for
you here that he delivered, and we wanna get the
reaction from Jorge Masvidal. – All he cares about is himself, that's all Jorge is. He's a guy that cares for himself. He doesn't care for others and he doesn't care for anybody unless they can do something for him and I'm not that guy. I'm not gonna always just do stuff for you and then be taken for granted.
So you know, now I pass him up. I'm making more money than him. I'm banging hotter chicks than him. I'm doing better in life and he's just a jealous little bitch. – [Presenter] That's from
the Ariel Helwani Show. – We thought you guys were boys. I think you even put out a tweet in support of him post
Askren fight, right? – It is what it is, man, all these words they do
have consequences to me 'cause this guy used to sleep on my couch. He used to eat off me. 'cause I was the one with the sponsors, he was just still relatively an amateur. And I was helping this guy out. So it hurts that he
would do that in a way, just for a like on Facebook. – Covington fully turns on this
former friend and teammate.
– This is going to tear
the team apart, right? – He leaves American Top
Team and becomes independent. – The other day he
didn't feel safe near me, I wonder why. – Are you happy he's gone? Are you no longer
affiliated with that team? – That is correct. I'm affiliated with Colby
Covington Incorporated as of now. I'm my own team. – His relationship with Masvidal really takes a dramatic turn. – This makes me sad that
you and Colby are beefing. – Me and this individual
shared a lot of memories.
– Yeah, you guys were real friends. – At some point I would have
considered us real friends. That's my roomie, that's my best friend, I aint got to worry about
anybody grinding on me after I got him on me. – Were you ever friends? Were you ever friends back in the day? – No. – If you would sell out our
friendship like that so quick, we never had a friendship. – I just spoke with my
buddy Jorge Masvidal, can't thank him enough
for what he did for me.
My sparring partner Jorge
Masvidal, my best friend. I strained with him a lot so- – We were both broke, plotting in the world of how
we were gonna make our money and our stake in this world. And our dreams are now falling into plan. – We hung out a lot, you
know, we live together, but it was a one-way street. He was just using me
for his training camps. – I thought we had a friendship, but I could see from your end to mine, we were never cool, man. You were just using me
or whatever the hell, sleeping on my couch. – I'm not your teammate. I'm not your roommate, Jorge. Now I'm just your daddy. – I'm surprised he acts this way. Like a punk. – I mean, I don't care if I lose friends because just like I always say, I'm not here to make friends,
I'm here to make money.
– Because I know who he is in real life. He's not this character he's
trying to be in real life that he's a sex symbol or maybe he doesn't have
no feelings or nothing. He's actually quite the opposite. – But at the end of the day, and I might get you first, you're a really good person. You go back home to Springfield, Oregon, and you sit down with the kids from the high school wrestling
and spend time with them and give your time to all those kids. – Thank you, Colby.
– Awesome. – Can I ask you something real quick. – Yeah. – Any advice for like a- – An up-and-coming fighter? – Yeah. – Just you gotta commit
your whole life to it. You gotta make the sacrifice daily. – Yeah it's what's it's like. I mean, I've been training since I was 17, but like some advice from- – If you truly love it,
if it's your passion- – It is man.
It is. – You'll find a way. Just believe in yourself. Never stop believing, my brother. – Thanks man. Actually I appreciate that, man. I don't know. I know you could live your
life the way you want, but I think you should
show this side of you more, the real humble side.
– I appreciate that. – I know a lot of people see that- – It's not what sells. – Yeah, yeah. But hey, man, it's more
likeable, I can tell you. Yeah, man. All right, good luck, man. – Thanks a lot. – [Fan] God bless you. – God bless you. – I talked to a number of his teammates, the ones that you don't hear in the media, they have great things to say. Hardest worker in the room, great attitude, inspires, shows up motivated, – How does Colby Covington
become the UFC's super villain? – Yeah, through a lot of hard work, man. A lot of deception. – Although I don't personally support any of the things he said or his methods, it's hard not to feel inspired by someone who's willing
to put so much on the line only to get to his goals.
– I had a dream when I was a little kid to be a world champion
as a wrestler and fighter and I never gave up on those dreams. I worked hard for it every single day. – [Interviewee] He was a hard working guy who just went out there
and fought his ass off, but people didn't give a shit, and so he turned heel. – It was blood, sweat, and tears to get to this point in my career and follow your dreams and your heart and what you believe in. This is what I'm here to do, is to create my destiny and achieve everything I
wanted to achieve in life. To be honest, Brandon,
I've lost a lot of friends, lost some sponsors. – Do you feel like sometimes, like I got no friends in this business, I got no friends in MMA. – I'm not here to make friends, and I don't care about making friends and I don't care what
people think of me, right? Because we realize in this world
that everybody has opinions and opinions are like bar holes, most of the time they stink.
– What next for Colby Covington? – Everybody knows who's next, it's gotta be Journeyman Jorge Masvidal, AKA Street Judas. – The universe is gonna
correct that mistake via me. Our time will come, I'll dictate when. – You feel like it needs
to be settled in the cage? – [Colby] Yeah, absolutely. I do feel like it needs
to be settled in the cage. If we don't fight in the cage for sure if I ever see him in
the streets, we will fight. The truth is Jorge Masvidal
is a piece of shit father.
He's a piece of shit fighter, and I hope I get to expose him
in front of the whole world. – I'm curious to hear what you think. Is it an act? Is he for real? Are you inspired? Are you disgusted? Either way, let me know what
you're thinking in the comments but whatever you do, think for yourself..
