Kamaru Usman defends title over Colby Covington and UFC 268 bonus winners

Nov 6, 2021; New York, NY, USA; Kamaru Usman (red gloves) leaves the octagon with his championship belt after defeating Colby Covington (blue gloves) during UFC 268 at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports

Through two rounds, the UFC 268 main event rematch between welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington seemed ill-conceived.

Kamaru Usman retains his welterweight title once again against Colby Covington

Usman (20-1), a Nigerian-American won their first fight nearly two years ago at UFC 245. And he nearly finished this bout at New York’s Madison Square Garden when he dropped Covington (16-3) twice in the closing seconds of the second round. Covington, to his credit, showed tremendous tenacity by rallying in the next two rounds with crisp striking and putting the fight’s result in question.

That’s when Usman showed championship mettle. He clamped down in the final five minutes, led by a strong jab, and a little more in the gas tank, and held on for a unanimous decision in another competitive title fight between the duo. The judge’s scores were 48-47, 48-47, and 49-46 for Usman.

“I know there’s a lot of trash talk and there’s a lot of bad blood here, and there’s probably still gonna be some after tonight, but this guy is tough as [expletive],” said Usman in his post-fight press conference.

Rose Namajunas defends her thrown from Zhang Weili

The evenings co-main was also a rematch of a strawweight title bout from seven months ago. Once again, Rose Namajunas defeated China’s Zhang Weili, but unlike the last time, when Namajunas (12-4) defeated Weili (21-3) with a flash knockout early in the first round to claim the 115-pound belt, this match was a five-round battle of attrition.

Weili clearly won the first round with a takedown and extended control time, and Namajunas did the same with the fifth and final round in a similar manner. The middle three rounds were all coin flips, with both fighters having moments in some tense kickboxing and grappling exchanges. In the end, Namajunas got enough nods from the judges in those rounds to retain her championship.

She earned a split decision on scores of 47-48, 48-47, and 49-46 for her fifth straight win.

“I was pretty confident in the end that I won it,” Namajunas said after. “The first couple rounds were pretty close. I wasn’t even too worried about the result, just doing my best.”