Sponsor terminated agreement with Colby Covington prior to UFC 245

Prior to UFC 245, which went down last Saturday in Las Vegas, welterweight title challenger Colby Covington had a falling out with his sponsor Cannafornia Inc., a California-based cultivator, manufacturer and supplier of cannabis for the medical and recreational market.

According to a release from Cannafornia, Covington failed to hold up his end of the sponsorship agreement, and even began a business relationship with one of Cannafornia’s competitors. He then demanded more money from Cannafornia.

Never seen a sponsor send a press release about canceling an agreement with a fighter before. This is wild. If this is true, Colby Covington really needs to re-think his professional strategy. pic.twitter.com/JRFZKU1kB1

— Amy Kaplan (@PhotoAmy33) December 16, 2019

“Colby and I had become friends, taking trips together to Los Angeles and Jamaica,”  Paul King, CEO of Cannafornia, stated in the release (h/t Amy Kaplan of FanSided). “However without explanation, in December, Colby stopped posting to Instagram and deleted all his prior Cannafornia posts in direct violation of the sponsor agreement. As a result, we dropped Colby before his loss to Usman in Las Vegas. The Cannafornia UFC Fight Team has retained its undefeated record heading into the next big fight in March for rising heavyweight star Jairzinho Rozenstruik.”

The release continued:

After deleting the Cannafornia Instagram posts conditional to his agreement, Covington posted for another CBD company and then demanded more money to continue the Cannafornia sponsorship. Lacking any rationale for a pay increase, Cannafornia refused and terminated Covington’s agreement. Previously unseen footage from Season Two of the Colby vlogs will be available for a brief window starting today before it and all references to Covington are removed from Cannafornia content permanently. 

Covington came up short in the UFC 245 main event, losing to welterweight champion Kamaru Usman by fifth-round TKO. This loss derailed a seven-fight winning streak for “Chaos,” who had recently bested foes like Demian Maia, Rafael dos Anjos and Robbie Lawler.

Post-fight, Covington has protested the stoppage that ended the fight, sharing his belief that the referee intervened too early.

What do you think the future holds for Colby Covington after UFC 245?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 12/16/2019.