If anyone was even close enough to dethrone the current UFC Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman, it would have to be “Chaos” Colby Covington. This goes way back to December 2019 when Covington and Usman fought a fight of the year candidate before Covington succumbed to Usman at the last round via TKO, thus succeeding Usman’s first title defence.
Since then, people have seen Usman grow his skill set and his legacy exponentially. After becoming the welterweight champion dethroning Tyron Woodley, the “Nigerian Nightmare” has had 4 title defences in total against the aforementioned Covington, Gilbert Burns and Jorge Masvidal twice. Covington, on the other hand, seems to be on his way to resurrection.
What Colby Covington had to say on his mentality ahead of his second title shot against Kamaru Usman at UFC 268
Covington has fought only once since his loss to Kamaru Usman but is coming off a fourth-round TKO win over former champion Tyron Woodley. Usman and Covington are now scheduled for a rematch long-awaited by the fans all around the world after the impressions the first fight left. Although Usman is the current champion, Covington feels that he has more chips on his shoulders.
In his interview with ESPN correspondent Brett Okamoto, Covington said, “The most difficult thing to overcome is just myself.”
“Everything that is stacked against me, all the people that hate me, all the people that try and think they know me. But no one really knows me. I let them see what I want to show them. I don’t show them the true me, they don’t know the true me.”
We are yet to see the full potential of Covington’s skillset considering the last time he fought Usman, his time at the then training centre American Top Team wasn’t going well at all because of his disputes with former teammates Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier. Now Covington has assured in his recent interviews that he is his best version and is ready to dethrone Kamaru Usman.
However, if Usman defeats Colby Covington the second time in this rematch at UFC 268, he will become the first UFC champion since 2017 to defend their title more than 4 times. Who do you think got the rematch?
UFC 268 features another title fight as well at the women’s strawweight champion when the challenger Weili Zhang will attempt to get the belt back from the current champion Rose Namajunas. Besides this, we have an epic, potentially brutal, lightweight clash ahead before the co-main event, between former title challengers Michael Chandler and Justin Gaethje. The event will take place this Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York.
