MMA News Roundup: Colby Covington accuses Ciryl Gane of taking a dive, UFC 286 loss pushes Kamaru Usman down P4P rankings, Casey O'Neill addresses grease-gate
Welcome to today's edition of Sportskeeda's daily MMA News Roundup, where we present the biggest UFC updates and other stories from the world of mixed martial arts.
In today's issue, we talk about Colby Covington accusing Ciryl Gane of fixing a fight, Kamaru Usman sliding further down the pound-for-pound rankings, and more.
#3. Colby Covington says UFC 285 headliner was "fixed"
Colby Covington recently weighed in on Jon Jones' historic return to the octagon.
Jones looked as good as his former self in his comeback, taking barely two minutes to sink in a guillotine on Ciryl Gane. Covington, like many others, was surprised by the lack of fight put up by 'Bon Gamin'.
In an interview with James Lynch, 'Chaos' stated that the new heavyweight champion's fight with Ciryl Gane looked like "a fix." He even dragged Jones' brothers, NFL stars Chandler and Arthur Jones, into the matter.
"It just looked like Ciryl was scared, scared of the moment, too much pressure. Honestly, it looked like it was a work, it looks like it was a fix. Maybe Jon Jones' brothers went over to France and told Ciryl that, you know, they're gonna pay him under the table to take a dive, because that's honestly what it looked like."
Catch Covington's comments below from the 9:20 mark:
Covington recently stepped up to serve as the backup fighter for the UFC 286 main event welterweight title fight between Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards.
He looked in perfect shape at the weigh-ins and tipped the scale at 170 pounds. He was present cageside during the fight in all his usual charisma.
#2. Rankings update sees Kamaru Usman dropping further on the P4P list
The UFC released the latest rankings after this past Saturday's pay-per-view event.
Kamaru Usman, who once held the No.1 pound-for-pound position, slid further down the list owing to the second defeat at the hands of Leon Edwards. He is currently ranked No. 8. His drop proved to be a boon for Israel Adesanya, Alex Pereira, and Aljamain Sterling, who gained a spot each.
The middleweight division saw Marvin Vettori climb a spot and replace Jared Cannonier as the No.3-ranked contender. In other divisions, Pedro Munhoz and Ricky Simon swapped the No.9 and No.10 positions at bantamweight, Jailton Almeida and Chris Daukaus swapped No.12 and No.13 places at heavyweight, and Dustin Jacoby gained a spot in light heavyweight.
#1. Casey O'Neill addresses Jennifer Maia's 'greasing' accusations
After Jennifer Maia handed Casey O'Neill her first career loss at UFC 286, she accused 'King Casey' of greasing before their fight.
In her post-event presser, the Brazilian claimed that O'Neill was "very oily, very slippery" and not just because of sweat. With that, she seemingly accused her opponent of adding extra grease to skin.
"It was not just sweat": Jennifer Maia accuses Casey O'Neill of being "greased up" during their #UFC286 fight.
Full interview: bit.ly/3Jm3tEE https://t.co/FpWGAta7kt
Casey O'Neill was quick to retort back. She wrote on Twitter:
"Damn, you won girl.. now you gotta make up lies because your wrestling wasn’t good? Just take the win and move on. It won’t happen next time we fight."
Damn, you won girl.. now you gotta make up lies because your wrestling wasn’t good ? Just take the win and move on. It won’t happen next time we fight twitter.com/mmajunkie/stat…