- In Las Vegas, Covington used his wrestling prowess to dominate the bout for the better part of 25 minutes.
- Prior to their breakup, Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal were close friends who traded jabs in interviews. At UFC 272 from Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night, Covington won by unanimous decision with scores of 49-46, 50-44, and 50-45 in the main event.
- At first, Masvidal unleashed a soaring kick, but both men reduced their tempo and began using a more tactical approach, which culminated in a takedown attempt as Masvidal complained of an eye poke from Covington.
- In the meanwhile, Covington sought to bring Masvidal down, finally taking the back and gaining the upper hand in the process. During the second round, Masvidal’s offensive took off, with several powerful kicks and an elbow to Covington’s eye opening a cut. When it came to starting clinches, though, Covington stuck to his guns and stuck with a grappling approach.
- In Round 3, Covington was able to plant Masvidal along the cage with a double-leg takedown. To put it simply, it set up Covington for a commanding performance in the five-minute period. Covington’s third-round efforts spilled over into Round 4’s early going, obviously draining Masvidal of his stamina.
- Despite this, Masvidal delivered a right hand that knocked Covington to the canvas and forced him to take a knee for a little while.
- Covington was able to recover before the round ended, which was a setback for Masvidal, who ran out of steam after landing the fight’s heaviest blow.
- In the final round, Covington eliminated any suspense by blitzing forward and knocking Masvidal down cold. From that point on, Covington would not let go of Masvidal’s body, crushing any attempts by the fighter to regain his feet and merely grinding away the seconds until he had recorded a victory.
- After the scorecards were announced, Masvidal was obliged to confess that his wrestling “wasn’t on point,” which was a disappointing outcome for such a highly anticipated grudge bout.
- It was Covington’s first post-fight interview, and he refused to discuss the bout. To avoid more embarrassment, he moved his focus to the next fight on his wish list. Covington challenged a previous interim lightweight champion, Kamaru Usman, who, like Masvidal, had also lost twice to the current welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.
- “I recently cleaned up the rubbish on Miami’s streets, now it’s time to clean up the marsh trash in Louisiana,” Covington said. “Dustin Poirier, where are you? It’s on the spot, according to what you mentioned. Dustin, what’s the URL?… That means you.”
