Colby Covington impressed the judges with his moves against Jorge Masvidal to earn all three votes at UFC 272. The fight seemed like a scramble for second place as both men entered the fight after suffering defeat in the hands of UFC Welterweight champion Usman Kamaru. Besides a history of bad blood between the two, who started out as friends and training partners, both men have been defeated twice each by Usman in less than three years. Before the fight, The Nigerian Nightmare gave his quick prediction for the fight, stating that Covington had a better advantage, and it turns out he was right.
Masvidal started the fight with a flying kick, which served as a glimpse of what we were going to see later on from him. He continued to bully Covington with leg kicks until Covington scored a takedown, and Masvidal complained of an eye poke later.
Masvidal turned his focus to looking for takedowns while Covington was working on dragging down his opponent and dominating him. In the second round, Masvidal cut Covington above the eye with an elbow, but that did nothing to deter him, as he kept on going for grappling attacks.
In the third round, Covington was able to score a takedown, which helped him dominate every minute of the round, and he was able to drain the energy of Masvidal in that round and in the next. All the hard work he had been putting in from the first round began to pay off. But just before the fourth round closed, Masvidal was able to land a hard right on Covington, but it was not enough to keep him down.
The last round was a bit anticlimactic as Covington took Masvidal down and kept him in that position till the round ended. That was not the ending many were hoping to see, but it worked just well for Covington, who went home as the winner, not just of the fight but of the long-standing grudge between the two.
Written by: Leon Osamor