Leon Edwards tames Colby Covington in one-sided win at UFC 296

Colby Covington finally gives up when Leon Edwards beats him at UFC 296.

Colby Covington talked a lot of trash about Leon Edwards before the fight, but Edwards kept calm and put on a great show. It was mostly Edwards’s game.

Covington couldn’t push the pace like he usually does, and Edwards was able to pick him apart with kicks from the outside.

It was majority decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46) for Edwards to beat Covington in the main event for UFC 296 on Saturday afternoon at T-Mobile Arena. With the win, Edwards protected his UFC welterweight belt for the second time.

At Thursday’s news conference before the fight, the anger between the two men reached a boiling point.

He told Edwards that he would take him through the “seventh layer of hell” since they might see his late father there.

While Edwards was on the dais, he threw an entire water bottle at Covington, which made them have to separate.

After the fight, Edwards said he cried out of “rage” after Thursday’s news conference and that it took a while for him to calm down.

Edwards said, “This fight made me feel a lot.” “This person made fun of my dad’s death.” He found pleasure in killing my dad. It took a lot to me to settle down, keep my mind on the fight, and show up.

“It’s not okay to use my father’s death for fun; he did that himself, you know.” It still breaks my heart that he was killed and that he said my dad ought to die in hell.

Edwards hit Covington with leg kicks all the time. He also hit him with left hands and check just hooks from the Southpaw, which hurt Covington on the mouth and then the nose.

Great wrestler Covington was able to knock Edwards out a few times, but Edwards was ready to get back up and even knock Covington out a few times after being in ground control for a while in the fifth. Two out of ten times Covington tried to take the fight down, but failed.

The sprinter said, “I knew I was the stronger one.” “Everyone at training camp kept talking about how much cardio he was doing.”

In terms of fitness, I also wanted to be able to keep up with him over the distance. I could also block his strikes with my technique as well as range, which is what I did in the end.

“I wanted to wrestle with him to stop this striker thing I was doing.” “I’m a mixed martial artist,” he said next. “I wanted to come out here in order to prove my case—outgrapple the grappler—and I outstruck him.”

The head of the UFC, Dana White, said that Covington, 35, looked “slow and old” during the fight and scolded him for being still for long periods of time. White said Edwards “destroyed” Covington’s right leg alongside kicks and “outwrestled” him.

It seemed like Colby Covington had more growl than bite on Saturday night. Leon Edwards kept his temper in check, controlled the fight, and successfully defended their UFC welterweight title after a rough buildup to UFC 296.

The last one made me cry a lot. This person found fun in my dad’s death. “I used killing my dad for fun,” Edwards said in an interview during the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas after the fight.

“It was hard for me to center myself, calm down, and join this fight.” I told my teachers and mom about it, and then I shut everything down.

“I literally broke down in tears when I got backstage after the press meeting… “The fact that my dad was killed still breaks my heart.” The scores on all three cards are 49–46 in favor of Edwards.

During their Thursday pre-fight news conference, Covington was able to get Edwards to show his feelings, but on fight night, the champion came out cold and calculated.

Right from the start, Edwards set the pace and only gave Covington a chance to fight when he chose to. The champion moved quickly and hit the competitor in the head with hooks and kicked him in the body as well as legs.

Many people think that Covington’s best skills are his endurance, his forward push, and his chain wrestling. But Covington was surprisingly quiet on Saturday, especially during the initial three rounds.

By the end of the fight, Covington looked more alive, especially when Edwards freely attacked his opponent’s fieldhouse.

Both Covington and Edwards got down once in Round 5. Covington won the fight by slipping toward of the champion’s choke attempts to end it on top.

Edwards won his 13th straight fight without losing, going back to a loss for Kamaru Usman in December 2015 that he got back at twice. Covington has won and lost each of his last six fights, and he has never fought for a title.

In another fight on the show, Shavkat Rakhmonov beat Stephen Thompson by submission to stake the claim for a title shot. In 18 professional fights, Rakhmonov has never lost and has always won all of them.

Also, Paddy Pimblett hit Tony Ferguson hard from the start and never let up. He came back from an injury to win, while Ferguson lost his seventh straight fight.

And to start the PPV, Josh Emmett knocked out Bryce Mitchell with some of the most stunning blows I can remember.