Head Coach Ricardo Liborio Leaves ATT After Colby Covington Incident

Ricardo Liborio is the head coach at American Top Team (ATT) and he was a co-founder of the fight team all the way back in 2001.

However, after the comments made by ATT member Colby Covington about Liborio’s native Brazil, the ATT founder has left the team.

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Liborio made his announcement through Instagram:

 

I feel that I must make a statement in light of the comments made by Colby Convigton along with the amount of messages sent to me from Brazil, the United States, and from all over the world. I'm here to state that I am no longer with American Top Team. Also, I absolutely do not condone any behavior that instigates hate, prejudice, or bullying of any kind. It upsets me to see the sport taking this direction of blatant disrespect. It’s unsportsmanlike, but it also fosters and promotes a culture of cruelty towards others. Combat Sports should always represent the qualities of humility, empathy, and respect. I dedicated my life to the Martial arts, and to the formation and growth of this team. I can not discuss at this time the reasons for my departure from ATT. At some point, I will. For the time being, I want the members of ATT to know that they will always be in my heart

A post shared by Ricardo Liborio (@liboriobjj) on Oct 30, 2017 at 11:41am PDT

Covington recently defeated Demian Maia at UFC Fight Night Sao Paulo, but it was his post-fight antics that grabbed the most attention.

In his post-fight interview alongside UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier, the victorious Covington called the Brazilian “filthy animals” and said other disparaging remarks about the country.

There has been no other statements issued yet by other ATT officials or Covington himself about Liborio’s exit from the team.