NEW YORK CITY – Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington didn’t hesitate in getting family involved in their latest exchange ahead of their championship rematch.

The UFC welterweight champion defends his belt for a fifth time as he takes on bitter rival Covington (16-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC) once again at Saturday’s UFC 268 pay-per-view in Madison Square Garden.

It’s a championship rematch that stems from December 2019 when Usman (19-1 MMA, 14-0 UFC) defended his belt for the very first time, putting away Covington in the fifth round of their contest. Back then and even now, the two have trash talked each other plenty, making it one of the most heated rivalries in MMA today.

At Thursday’s press conference, Covington got Usman’s family involved, and “The Nigerian Nightmare” didn’t stay quiet for long.

“If he’s saying that I was faking this and that, but I didn’t,” Usman said, sparking a heated back and forth argument. “I stayed in the fight and I broke your f*cking jaw.”

“The only thing your broke was your daddy out of prison,” Covington fired back. “Where’s that jailbird at? We need the scam artist here just like his son.”

Usman’s father, Muhammed, was arrested in 2009 and charged with multiple counts of health care fraud, claiming his ambulance company knowingly submitted false claims. Usman claims his father was innocent and it was people working for him that did fraud. But because his father was the owner of the ambulance company, he took on the blame.

Usman’s father served 10 years of his 15-year sentence. He was released in early 2020.

“As a competitor, I love what he brings to the table,” Usman said not long after Covington’s family comments. “He pushes me and I expect that from him. But as a person, he’s a piece of sh*t. I can’t believe his father let him put this persona on.”

“At least my father wasn’t in prison,” Covington replied. “Scamming everybody out of their hard-earned money. These people work their asses off, all these blue-collar Americans and you’re going to scam them out of millions of dollars?”

Usman didn’t hesitate to bring Covington’s father into the mix. Covington has been a long-time controversial figure due to his racially charged remarks in the past.

“I’m looking at your dad here in the corner, very respectable man, and I can just tell he’s embarrassed each and every time you open your mouth,” Usman said.

The two men will look to settle the score inside the cage once again in the main event of UFC 268 on Saturday.

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