Colby Covington settles rivalry with unanimous decision win over Jorge Masvidal

The main event of UFC 272 saw one of the greatest rivalries in the history of the sport as former teammates Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal finally settled their bad blood.

Covington went into the fight as the odds favourite due to his NCAA All-American wrestling credentials and how effectively he’s transferred these to the UFC.

Knowing the history between the two fighters, MMA fans they were in for a treat and the fight did not disappoint.

Round one began with Covington walking straight into the middle of the octagon to put Masvidal on the back foot.

After a combination of punches, Covington shot for a double-leg takedown on Masvidal but it was defended well by the ‘Gamebred’ using hard elbows on Covington.

However, Covington continued and dragged Masvidal down to the ground multiple times and had multiple submission attempts, as well as a full mount. A dominant round for Covington.  

It was a similar story in round two. Covington’s striking improved, but it was met with a crushing elbow strike from Masvidal which left a cut on the face of Covington.

Close

Submissions were attempted by Covington, but it was a close round overall.

Two judges scored the round 10-9 to Covington and one judge gave the round to Masvidal 10-9.

Round three determined the trajectory of the fighter and the likely outcome.

Covington urgently met Masvidal in the middle of the octagon, landing a series of high kicks from the southpaw stance and shooting for a takedown after backing Masvidal to the cage.

Masvidal’s takedown defence going into this fight was 74%, higher than the average of other strikers, so fans knew Covington would endure difficulties taking Masvidal down.

After 50 seconds into the round, Covington dropped levels and landed a perfectly timed takedown with little to no resistance from Masvidal.

This allowed him to put Masvidal in uncomfortable positions and land a sequence of crafted elbows.

Michael Bisping, former middleweight champion, said Covinton was “going to town on Masvidal’s face”.

Masvidal was in all sorts of trouble and Covington managed to cut him with an elbow above the bridge of the nose to equal the elbow he was hit with in round two.

Flawless

The third round was flawless from Covington. He won the round unanimously on all the judge’s scorecards.

Big shots from Covington at the start of round 4 staggered Masvidal and left him in all sorts of trouble.

It seemed Covington was close to a TKO finish.

But Masvidal landed a short elbow in the clinch followed by a hard body kick, and a perfectly timed right kook, nearly dropping Covington.

Covington was almost on wobbly legs, but Masvidal did not have the stamina to capitalise and he recovered quickly.

The round was scored 10 -9 for Covington on all of the judges’ scorecards.

The fight was now heading into the fifth and final round.

Covington knew he was close to a landslide victory against his former teammate and could not afford to make a mistake that would jeopardise all his hard work.

He was methodical, precise, and approached the round with technical aggression. A takedown one minute and 43 seconds to the end of the fight secured the victory for Covington and helped run down the clock.

The fight ended and it was clear that Covington won by a huge margin.

Bruce Buffer read: “Ladies and gentlemen after five rounds, we go to the judge’s scorecard for a decision. The judges score of the contest: 49-46, 50-44 and 50-45 for the winner by unanimous decision Colby ‘Chaos’ Covington.”

Colby said: “Now onto business. I just took care of Miami street trash now it is time to take care of Louisiana swamp trash.

“Where are you at, Dustin Poirier?

“You said it’s on sight, name the sight, name the sight Dustin. You’re next.”

Masvidal was disappointed with his performance against Covington, saying: “I was off-beat with the wrestling. I need to wrestle harder.

“Sorry to my kids – the only people I need to say sorry to.

“My wrestling wasn’t there today, I was flat.”

For the current welterweight division, a fight between Poirier and Covington seems imminent.

Just like this fight, the UFC community is looking forward to high pay-per-view numbers if the fight ever materialises.