Shots After The Bell: UFC Sydney breaks record for longest event ever

There's a general idea in MMA that it's often the cards with few names you have to watch out for because they're the ones with all the hungry fighters looking to prove themselves. UFC Sydney was not one of those nights. While the prelims featured some pretty good action, the main card was largely a snooze fest with zero finishes and nothing standing out other than the length.

Those attending the event live got to the arena at 9:30AM and left around 4:30PM. East coast viewers had to stay up til 1:30AM to see Fabricio Werdum's win a decision over Marcin Tybura. In one word, the event was long. In three words, it was record setting long.

Fight of the Night (Almost)

One bright spot on the card was Frank Camacho vs. Damien Brown, a razor sharp split decision in Camacho's favor that featured both fighters slugging for the fences. The bout was awarded Fight of the Night, but unfortunately Camacho won't be seeing a cent of the $50,000 award that comes with that distinction. He missed weight by a staggering 5 pounds, and was forced to give up 30% of his purse to Brown.

But Frank is being pretty cool about the whole thing and asking the UFC to give what would have been his award money to Brown too.

"I'm not eligible for the Fight of the Night bonus for missing weight," Camacho wrote on social media. "I humbly ask the UFC to please give Damien Brown my cut of the 50k. Well deserved for an absolute class act and WARRIOR and taking the fight for his home country!"

And it sounds like it almost worked.

Alas...

The Most Hated Man In The UFC?

Colby Covington continues to make waves everywhere he goes. In addition to getting smoked in the face with a boomerang by Fabricio Werdum, he also got called out by Belal Muhammad, who took one of the other split decisions on the card over Tim Means.

"There's a coward here I saw earlier this week by the name of Colby Covington," he said. "I heard you were talking trash about other people's countries, man. I don't like that man, I'm from Chicago. We're both 170. Meet me in the cage, because if I see you in the streets you're going to the ICU."

Covington has been public enemy number one since he took a page out of the Chael Sonnen playbook and trash talked Brazil. He took it too far, and his 'filthy animals' bit is starting to sound legitimately intolerant. But it's also a bit concerning that it's allowed the rest of the UFC roster to declare open season on him. Werdum assaulted the guy on the street and still fought later that week. And now Muhammad is talking about jumping him and putting him in the hospital.

It all feels like it's spiraling out of control. Chael Sonnen had the charisma and enough tongue in cheek humor to walk the edge. But what we're seeing from Covington isn't 'Nog brothers feeding a carrot to a bus' funny. And the overreaction from the roster is starting to feel ugly too. Who knew this heel thing was so hard to pull off properly?