Kamaru Usman believes both Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington made bad decisions.

This past week, Masvidal was arrested on charges of aggravated battery and criminal mischief after allegedly attacking Covington outside Miami restaurant. In the lead up to their grudge match at UFC 272, Covington had levied numerous personal attacks at Masvidal and his family, and Covington claims that during the alleged incident, Masvidal punched him twice in the face while saying, “You shouldn’t have been talking about my kids.” And so for UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, he doesn’t have a ton of sympathy for Covington.

“It’s unfortunate because it’s taken itself, it’s growing legs now out of just sports to actuality and reality,” Usman said on Instagram Live (h/t MMAJunkie). “That’s what’s the danger about what you say trying to build a fight or leading up to a fight. You have to watch your mouth. You can’t just run off at the mouth and say what you want or do what you want and expect the opponent to still keep it sport-related.”

Usman has had notable feuds with both Covington and Masvidal, having defeated both men twice over the past few years, and in his own fights with Covington, having been subjected to much of the same sort of trash talk. However, Usman notes that he did handled the situation very differently, and so while he doesn’t like the things Covington has been doing, he also believes that Masvidal handled things poorly.

“Of course some people, i.e like myself, I am just wise enough to understand that you could say whatever you want to say,” Usman said. “At the end of the day, I will do my talking with my hands inside once we step in there because that is what I’m there for, is to compete. So you can say and do whatever you want to try and throw me off my competitive edge, which is my mind, but at the end of the day, you can’t. I will go in there and I will still handle business. But in this case, you said a lot of things that crossed the line and some people are not wise enough to not risk it all outside.

“Now (Masvidal is) facing counts, and now you could potentially go away. So that’s the unfortunate nature of the situation. I don’t like it. Both guys, I believe, are in the wrong. You can’t just do what you want and say what you want just because you want to sell something, and I feel that’s wrong – very wrong. But also, you can’t go as an athlete – as an elite athlete, you’re one of the best athletes in the world – you can’t just go attacking somebody in the street. Yeah, I understand it’s another athlete, but you can’t just do that when it’s outside of competition. So both guys took a big ‘L’ on that one. [I]pray for both, though. [I] hope they’re OK.”

Masvidal is due back in court on April 21, after entering a plea of not guilty during arraignment.

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VIDEO STEW

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Marcus Buchecha (2-0) vs. Reug Reug (3-1); ONE Championship, April 22.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Thanks for reading!

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