According to the scorecards, the judges all agreed on Usman winning rounds one and two, especially after he nearly finished Covington late in the second. Covington disagreed with that assessment and he definitely didn’t understand how judge Derek Cleary had Usman winning with the 49-46 score.
The victory was Usman’s 15th straight win in the UFC — the second-longest UFC streak behind Anderson Silva (16).
Usman was perfect in his takedown defense coming into the fight, having defended 20 of 20 attempted takedowns in his UFC career. Covington still used the threat to open up new attacking lanes, even as Usman actually won the wrestling exchanges with Covington failing on all 11 of his takedown attempts.
After the final horn sounded, Usman and Covington hugged with Covington appearing to admit that his trash talk was just a matter of helping the fight do better business before the fighters acknowledged their mutual respect.
The duo previously met at UFC 245, where Usman technically knocked out the American in the fifth round.
