‘This isn’t OK’: Colby Covington slammed after choking rapper Lil Pump unconscious

Fans have called for controversial UFC fighter Colby Covington’s contract to be torn up after choking a rapper unconscious, despite tapping out.

UFC fighter Colby Covington has been slammed after he choked rapper Lil Pump unconscious during a livestream.

The controversial Covington hasn’t fought since last December when he lost his third attempt to get the UFC welterweight crown against Leon Edwards.

He previously lost to former champion Kamaru Usman twice — once in 2019 and again in 2021.

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A former interim UFC welterweight champion back in 2018, Covington is still ranked fifth, despite being out of action for over nine months with his next fight yet to be decided.

However, Covington is clearly keeping fit judging by the controversial video which has gone viral.

The video, which has been viewed 29.8 million times on X and almost 120,000 likes on Lil Pump’s own Instagram account as of writing, sees Covington clinching Pump in a rear naked choke.

A clearly uncomfortable Pump tried to tap out, but was touching his own chest initially.

“He’s tapping himself,” a voice off camera said.

Pump then tried to grab Covington’s arm and tap, but the 36-year-old UFC fighter doubled down, moving into a more dominant position and putting the rapper’s lights out.

“He’s out, he’s out,” the off-camera voice said as Covington released and got to his feet as Pump was pushed onto his back, with a trainer telling him to “breathe”.

Covington said: “Look at his eyes bro, he’s out. Look at his eyes. Holy …”

It took more than 10 seconds for Pump to come to, before he looked around disorientated.

Covington commented on the video, writing: “Pump got that dog in him.”

But fans weren’t as happy about what happened with many criticising Covington for not releasing after Pump tapped out.

Fellow rapper GTB Tonio posted: “There’s literally nothing funny about this.”

Sports commentator Wade Plemons tweeted: “This is absolute loser behaviour from Colby.”

One fan commented: “Colby Covington has – once again – shown himself to be a complete scumbag.

“Lil Pump (who doesn’t train) tapped multiple times – he is merely looking to create content with Colby and is presumably a guest at his gym.

“Colby responds by ignoring the tap and risking injury. Prick.”

Another wrote: “Crazy to keep choking after the tap. He tapped multiple times. Colby should be demoted on his jiu jitsu belt and should never be allowed to fight again. This isn’t OK especially for a bum.”

A third commented: “Colby Covington ignoring Lil Pump’s taps and continuing the choke is reckless and dangerous. There’s no excuse for that kind of dirty behaviour, in or out of the cage.”

A fourth wrote: “Crazy to keep choking after the tap.”

Another fan posted: “That is literally attempted murder.”

Another suggested: “That’s attempted. Not cool dude.”

A seventh said: “Embarrassing bro — he tapped. Also embarrassing that it took that long Colby’s submission game is zero.”

Another said Colby “should be banned from MMA for life IMHO, or at the very least highly sanctioned”, while others suggested he should lose his UFC contract.

Colby Covington choked Lil Pump unconscious. Photo: Twitter

The lights went out. Photo: Twitter

Lil Pump was disorientated after losing consciousness for over 10 seconds. Photo: Twitter

The 24-year-old Lil Pump, who was born Gazzy Fabio Garcia, came to prominence as part of the SoundCloud rap scene during 2010 before hitting the big time with his 2017 single Gucci Gang, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and went quintuple platinum.

He’s since released three studio albums with multiple other singles finding success.

He’s also popular on social media with 13.8 million Instagram followers.

Both men are also outspoken supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

Trump has even tweeted in support of Covington in the past.

But the 36-year-old fighter, who has a carefully crafted persona as a jerk and described himself as a “super villain”, has landed himself in hot water over the years, including making vulgar comments about UFC women’s strawweight fighter Polyana Viana.

Colby Covington has been slammed. Photo: David Becker/Getty Images/AFP

He has also been slammed over trash talk in the past, including suggesting Usman’s long-time coach Glenn Robinson, who died in 2018, had “a heart attack from all those years you were ducking me,” and would be “watching from hell”.

He also goaded Edwards in his last fight ahead of UFC 296, claiming he’d take you to the seventh layer of hell … We’ll say ‘what’s up’ to your dad while we’re there”.

Edwards’ father was murdered when Leon was just 13.

Covington was also attacked by Jorge Masvidal while at dinner in an ugly escalation of the pair’s war of words, despite Covington having beaten Masvidal at UFC 272 before the incident.