A number of Black UFC fighters have spoken out against Colby Covington after he made racist comments to Nigerian star Kamaru Usman

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and other Black athletes set to compete at UFC 253 have spoken out against racist remarks made by fellow athlete Colby Covington after he asked Nigerian born Kamaru Usman if he uses “smoke signals” to communicate with his “little tribe.”

Covington made the comments during an interview with Usman after beating Tyron Woodley at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas on Sunday.

In his post-fight press conference, the American, an avid supporter of President Donald Trump, also referred to Woodley as “a communist, a Marxist, and [someone] standing up for lifelong criminals.”

Woodley wore a “Black Lives Matter” shirt all week in the lead up to the fight, and during a news conference three days before the bout, answered every question with a variation of the phrase.

The UFC has not punished Covington for his comments, and has a long history of allowing athletes to speak freely. This has led to a number of stars making offensive, and sometimes downright racist, comments.

“It just shows you the landscape of the media, what it is right now,” Adesanya, who was also born in Nigeria, said, according to ESPN.

“I made a joke about dropping [Yoel] Romero like the Twin Towers and everyone lost their mind, even if I said it was a joke and it was pretty funny, but people took it as I was being offensive and like, digging, but I was making a joke.

“This guy [Covington] has directly insulted my culture, my brother and many other cultures, and no one says anything, but it just shows you a mirror.”

Bantamweight Sijara Eubanks said: “Let’s be real, first and foremost. It wasn’t ‘unfortunate.’ It was flat-out racist. It was racist. It was disgusting.

“It was quite frankly disappointing, but at the same time, the one thing I appreciate is the UFC lets whoever say whatever. They have never muzzled us as fighters.”

She added: “But to be fair, I think guys that talk like Mike Perry [who has publicly used the N-word] and Colby Covington, I think a lot of the things they say are racist and disgusting and should be reported as such, instead of ‘unfortunate’ or ‘controversial.’ It’s racist.”

Featherweight Hakeem Dawodu said: “It’s crazy that comments like that are causing more and more divide amongst the people. That’s how he gets down, but I’m not really with that and I took offense to that for sure.”

Adesanya, Eubanks, and Dawodu all fight at UFC 253 on Sunday, with Adesanya headlining the event in a much anticipated bout against Brazilian Paulo Costa.