Colby Covington says that Kamaru Usman and his entourage started their Las Vegas confrontation.

Covington made his presence felt during UFC 235’s fight week. He interrupted Usman’s open workout session, confronted UFC president Dana White in a Las Vegas casino, and traded words with Usman from the crowd after “The Nigerian Nightmare’s” welterweight title win.

Just one day after UFC 235, Covington and Usman nearly came to blows. Usman’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, even took a swing at Covington. “Chaos” appeared on BJPenn Radio and claimed that Usman’s group started the fracas:

“It was completely to their side, they approached me looking to get a reaction out of me. Obviously, they want me to swing. You know they came up to me because they’re threatened now. Now they’ve realized that I’m the guy in the way to take everything that they worked for, so of course, they’re gonna try and come to me and get me to — hopefully I’ll swing on them and lose my title shot but it wasn’t gonna happen man. All I was doing, Jason, was sitting in the buffet line trying to get some crab legs, man. Is there something wrong man? Can I get some crab legs before I get on my flight back to South Florida and all my beautiful b*s in Miami? It’s unbelievable.

“You got the Sasquatch dude, Snoozeman’s buddy, he comes up, puts hands on me, pushes me. I’m like ‘Oh yeah what are you gonna do dude?’ And then Ali comes over. He tries to take a swing on me and of course, my cat-like reflexes, he’s not gonna hit me you know, so I get out of the way,”
Covington continued. “And then Ali’s acting all tough. Usman’s jumping over barriers. It’s hilarious. He was just getting wheel chaired the night before to his press conference, but then the next day he’s jumping over barriers.”

UFC president Dana White has made it clear that Covington is next in line for a shot at the UFC welterweight title. Usman is recovering from hernia surgery.