NEWARK, N.J. – Former interim welterweight champion Colby Covington was in the midst of doing interviews after UFC on ESPN 5 when he was pulled away for a special call with Donald Trump.

The UFC welterweight contender glowed as he recalled his conversation with the president, whose sons Eric and Donald Jr. were in attendance for his pivotal win over ex-champ Robbie Lawler.

“Donald Trump, Mr. President, he tweeted out support for me before the fight, and then after the fight, he gave me a call,” Covington said backstage at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. “He just said he appreciates everything I’ve done. He wants me to come back to the White House and shake his hand again and hang out with him in the Oval Office.”

Covington became the first UFC fighter to visit the Oval Office after winning the interim title in 2018. An unabashed fan of the president and the first family, he extended repeated invites to watch him work.

Before Covington walked to the octagon, he chatted with Trump Jr. and received a text message from the president, who wished him well and called him a “real Champ.”

“He just appreciates how much I do and the hard-working American,” Covington said of their post-fight talk. “I haven’t been given anything. I’ve had to work and earn everything I have.

“This (fight) was a landslide, just like it’s going to be a landslide in 2020.”

Trump’s relationship with MMA goes back to the early 2000s when he hosted UFC 30 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J. UFC president Dana White stumped for then-candidate Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2016, and the UFC released a video special on their history entitled “Combatant in Chief.”

Trump also dipped his toe into the MMA promotion business, lending his name to clothing company-turned-promoter Affliction in 2009.

Covington likely sealed a shot at the welterweight title held by Kamaru Usman. The two got into a heated confrontation on the ESPN post-fight show, where Usman was serving as an analyst.

Covington declared victory in that skirmish, as well.

“Security held ‘Marty Fakenewsman’ back, so looks like he’s probably going to be out for another year with an injury,” he said. “He’s faking injuries, faking narratives. He doesn’t want to fight me. He saw what I did to a man tonight in Robbie Lawler. Kamaru Usman is nothing but a (expletive).”