UFC News: Colby Covington loses cannabis sponsorship deal in bizarre situation

Colby Covington is coming off a devastating last-minute TKO defeat to Kamaru Usman in what many considered to be one of the best fights of 2019. There was no doubt that it was an epic war and on the night, Covington undoubtedly proved that he's the second-best Welterweight on the planet.

Before UFC 245, Covington had a sponsorship deal with Cannabis company Cannafornia. Paul King, the CEO of the company, released a press statement that was shared by Amy Kaplan of Fansided revealing that they had terminated Covington's contract.

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

How did this happen? It was apparently over Covington deleted the posts endorsing the brand.

“Colby and I had become friends, taking trips together to Los Angeles and Jamaica,” Paul King, CEO of Cannafornia, said in the statement.

“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.”

In what comes off as a very questionable business strategy, Covington would go on to endorse another CBD brand and asked for more money from Cannafornia. Due to the breach of contract and the lack of justification for a pay raise, his partnership was terminated.

“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,” King continued.

“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.”

It's going to be interesting to find out what Covington's perspective on the situation is. Deleting posts of an endorsement certainly seems unethical from a business perspective and if true, it's not a good look for the former Interim Champion, who has already been in the midst of controversy over previous comments that he made that were deemed insensitive.

He's medically suspended for 180 days. Dana White stated that he wants to see Tyron Woodley face Colby Covington next, but it's unlikely that Woodley will wait half a year for his next big fight.