First of all, this UFC card was stacked with great fights and they did not disappoint. The main event was a striking spectacle both fighters Covington and Usman are high-level wrestlers and both knew this possibly cancelling one another out. This kept the fight standing the entire duration and made for a great show. After the fight Usman mentioned that Colby did not want to wrestle with him and this may of been the case.
Kamaru Usman finished Covington in the last round via TKO following two thumping knockdowns, which hat off to Colby he took on the chin, literally. He did show serious heart and fight to keep coming at the champion despite getting hit with a bombardment of strong punches.
Usman retained the Welterweight belt after his first defence against a relentless Covington who applied persistent pressure on the champ. The pair started the fights they meant to go on, meeting each other in the centre of the cage and just trading blows. This continued throughout the fight with the scorecards looking very even, maybe the slight edge to Usman due to the significant strikes he was landing and the damage he was causing to Colby’s body.
In the third round Covington suffered a broken jaw from a stiff right straight from the Nigerian nightmare. Regardless of his injury he continued forward for the next nearly ten minutes. Usman worked very well behind his jab to relieve the pressure and punish him back, until he managed to get the knockdown and force referee Marc Goddard to stop the fight.
Covington was not happy at all with the stoppage from the ref and stormed out of the arena in a hurry, he later tweeted to the referee venting his frustrations:
“I go in there to kill or be killed. You robbed me of that. You robbed the people of a fair fight.”
The Combat Corner 