Kamaru Usman defended his welterweight championship title against the MAGA Mouth of the MMA Colby Covington by unanimous decision on Saturday (November 6) in a clash that some thought was closer than the results. The Nigerian Nightmare dropped Covington twice early in the fight but Chaos fought back and push the champion to the limits but it was not enough.
Usman, 34, entered the fight with an impressive 18-fight win streak and previously fought Covington, one year his junior, back in 2019 in another five-round battle that Usman ended with his fists. For UFC 268 in New York City, Usman showed his massive punching power by flooring Covington, who managed to bring some of that same power back to Usman and fought a smarter fight than their first contest.
Still, the judges saw more from Usman’s side and thought that he did far more damage than Covington did despite the champ getting rocked a couple of times before the end but Usman didn’t hit the campus once. At the end of the fight, the fighters exchanged some words and despite all of the offensive things Covington said about Usman and his family, the champion showed some class and gave Covington the respect of a warrior.
“There was a lot of trash talk and a lot of bad blood, and I’m sure there will still be some, but this guy is a tough son of a b*tch,’ Usman said, as seen in a Yahoo! Sports report. “He’s tough as sh*t. I wanted to get crazy and I wanted to get him out of there, but I knew with a guy like this, he was going to creep back in it.”
Covington gamely admitted that Usman was the better man in the octagon on Saturday, but vowed to get right back to work on Monday.
“I had my moments,” Covington said. “I wobbled him a couple of times, but I wasn’t able to capitalize. It was his night. He had a better night.”
While the fight wasn’t the universal beatdown some may have clamored for, Usman’s win streak extends to 19 and cements his status as the UFC’s top pound-for-pound contender.
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Photo: Getty