Best and worst from UFC 245: Usman vs. Covington
The UFC’s final pay-per-view of the decade is in the books, and boy, what a show we got. This was one of 2019’s best shows, with practically every fight delivering in terms of action. The three title fights all lived up to their hype – albeit in different ways – and we even got an unexpected new champion crowned.
Here are the best and worst moments from UFC 245: Usman vs. Covington.
#1 Best: Usman shuts Covington up....for now
The main event – a Welterweight title fight between champion Kamaru Usman and challenger Colby Covington – was the Fight of the Night in my opinion, as the two wrestlers came out and threw their grappling out of the window, choosing to stand and trade shots for basically the entire 25 minutes, and in the end, it was Usman who came out on top.
Covington – who had always been able to overwhelm his past opponents with his high-pressure style – started quickly, but Usman always appeared to be the smoother, harder-hitting striker. The fact that ‘Chaos’ couldn’t use the threat of the takedown against the Nigerian as he had against the likes of Robbie Lawler and Rafael Dos Anjos began to tell midway through the fight.
‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ began to really work the challenger over, digging to the body with uppercuts and front kicks to soften him up, and when Covington’s jaw was apparently broken by a right hand late in the third round, the writing was on the wall. ‘Chaos’ pushed back strongly in the fourth and fifth rounds, but eventually he ate a huge right hand late in the fifth that sat him down, and after another right dropped him for a second time, Usman sealed the deal.
The way that the fight ended – with Covington running out of the Octagon nursing his jaw – was poetic justice, as he’d used controversial, quasi-racist rhetoric against Usman to build the fight up, and despite claiming to be “playing a character” he came off far more offensively than other trash-talkers like Chael Sonnen and Conor McGregor had ever done. Hopefully the loss changes his attitude somewhat – not likely, admittedly – and for now, Kamaru Usman remains the best in the world at 170lbs. Chalk one up for the good guys!