We finally got to see the highly anticipated rematch between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington almost 2 years after the original fight that became an instant classic and one of my favorite fights I have ever seen in real time. The first fight had pretty much everything you could want. It had the bad blood between the two in a back and forth battle that was finished in the last minute in somewhat controversial fashion. No matter which side you were on, it was the perfect storm for a rematch. A lot of circumstances led to this fight not taking place for almost two years. Colby wanted to wait, claiming that his performance in the first fight was worthy of the immediate rematch, but the UFC didn't seem to agree. Obviously, the pandemic really threw a wrench into things on top of all of that. The pandemic gave Gilbert Burns the opportunity and he ran with it, all the way to his own title shot. Unfortunately for him, he ended up with COVID the week of the fight and that created the perfect situation for fan favorite Jorge Masvidal to step in and save the day. Having taken the fight on 6 days notice, Masvidal wasn't prepared cardio-wise for 5 rounds with the pound for pound best fighter in the UFC and was beaten rather easily. After that, they still owed Burns the fight he was promised and he was finished by Usman in the 3rd round. I think everyone assumed Colby would be next, except that after the fight, Usman got on the microphone and called out Masvidal for a rematch. When the reigning champion calls out the same guy who the UFC really owed a favor to after he stepped in and saved the whole Fight Island event, there was really only one way to go. After he knocked Masvidal out cold, the UFC found the only other way to deny Leon Edwards a title shot and finally gave us Usman vs Covington 2 (I kid, mostly, but give Leon his title shot please).
So did the rematch live up to the hype? I think, for the most part, yes it did. At least for me, it didn't seem like there was as much animosity between the two all of fight week and we saw at the conclusion that they did have a moment of respect for each other, which I think is always nice to see, but maybe I've just gotten soft as I've gotten older. However, in terms of the actual fight itself, it was every bit as interesting as the first fight in my opinion. Four of the five rounds could have probably gone either way, with the second round being a clear round for Usman after he dropped Colby with a left hook twice in short order. Some are suggesting that should have been a 10-8, which I don't think I really agree with, but as we saw, it didn't really matter. I personally had rounds 1, 2, and 5 for Usman and rounds 3 and 4 for Colby with all of those scores being 10-9. If I remember correctly, round 4 was the second easiest round to score for me, with that being for Covington. Honestly, you could have had rounds 1, 3, and 5 going either way and I honestly didn't know who was going to get the decision up until Bruce Buffer said "and still". Normally when he is reading the scores, you can tell who it is if there is a score that doesn't fit with the rest, but even with the one judge having it 49-46, I still wasn't sure if that favored Usman or not. I'm not even someone who is a true, fight analyst type, but there were some really interesting strategic decisions that got me thinking. If you're someone who trains or is a coach or anything of the sort, please leave a comment below and let me know what you thought because I'm interested to know from someone with more insight. I'm going to attempt to articulate myself in a way that makes sense, but also doesn't come across as if I'm speaking as someone who has direct knowledge of the way fight strategy works, so let me know if I'm completely off base or if I'm partially or mostly saying the right things.
I found myself being largely torn on what I thought of Colby's approach to this fight. In the first fight, we saw him try to get into Usman's face and use his cardio to put a pace on Usman that he wouldn't be able to maintain and take advantage late. It ultimately didn't work out the way he wanted at the end, but it did push Usman as far as we've seen him pushed and as close to losing as he's been in his UFC career. I expected that he would use that same basic premise when constructing his strategy for this fight, with small adjustments to take advantage of openings that maybe he didn't fully capitalize on the first time. I also expected there would be some wrestling exchanges given the high level qualifications both of them have in the wrestling world. Instead, I saw Colby with a much more careful and calculated approach, which I don't think favored him at all. When it comes to a stand up striking battle, the cleaner the fight looks, the more it would favor Usman over Colby and Colby played right into it. When it comes to striking, Colby, no pun intended, needed to create more chaos. When Colby got more desperate later in the fight after he was down, he started to take chances and extend combinations, which is also when he had the most success. We saw during those exchanges that Usman would duck his head and throw wildly and maybe it's just me, but I don't know if I remember seeing him duck down and just throw like that before. That seemed like something Colby could have taken advantage of. We know Usman isn't as natural of a striker as he is in the wrestling department, meaning that's where he is more likely to fall into bad habits and pre-Trevor Wittman habits. It seemed like that when the fight got crazy and the exchanges got heated, that's where he fell into those habits, but Colby's more cautious approach didn't create those scenarios enough. Now, if some jabroni like me sitting on his couch at home could see that, surely Colby's team of professional coaches were aware of that, but why not make that adjustment? Well, my best guess is that they thought it wasn't sustainable. More specifically, they thought that if they created wild exchanges over the course of 5 rounds, that Colby would fall to Usman's power before Usman would fall to Colby's. I don't think they're wrong in thinking that as we saw Colby dropped and finished in the first fight and then saw him dropped again in the second round of this fight. Colby only resorted to those more reckless techniques that left him exposed once he was behind in the fight and needed to take more risks. However, I don't think that needed to be an either/or proposition. I don't think Colby needed to be all in on the crazy, long combination strategy for the entirety of the fight. Some of those rounds were so close, that maybe one or two of those extended exchanges where Colby was getting the better of Usman would have been enough to swing a round or two in his favor. Now, could those have been the exchanges where Colby gets caught and finished? Absolutely, but here we are and Colby lost anyways. It's easier for me to say as a guy typing on a laptop, but I think Colby would say that he would rather have gone out really pushing in those exchanges than to have stood there and had Bruce Buffer say "and still" like we ultimately saw. I really wouldn't rule out a trilogy because these fights are so close and with a couple more defenses for Usman and a few really good wins for Colby, I think we could be right back here in another 18-24 months.
This is a lot longer than these posts usually are, but this isn't an ordinary fight under ordinary circumstances so, we're just going to roll with it. I think I'm going to start with Covington here because there's really only one fight to make for him next and that's Jorge Masvidal. Masvidal is currently booked to fight Leon Edwards in December and for him, I don't think the result of that fight even matters. Win or lose, he has to fight Colby next. Neither of them are getting a title shot in the near future as long as Usman has the belt anyways, so that's not really a factor. The personal issues between the two on top of them being extremely popular and highly regarded is enough to sell this fight several times over. Any other matchup for either one would ultimately be disappointing. To be honest, if it's not that, I don't even know what I would really want to see next for him. Sure, putting him in the cage with any highly ranked welterweight would be a great fight that I would want to see. Wonderboy Thompson, Gilbert Burns, Vicente Luque would all be interesting matchups and pretty good fights, but it just feels like there would be something missing since Colby might have to go through all 3 of them before he was even in the mix for another shot at Usman. I don't think Colby is even in a spot to go after another weight class. He's probably too big to go all the way down to 155 and even if he could, there's so many contenders there, that he probably wouldn't be any closer to that title shot than he would be to an Usman trilogy. I think a possible move to middle weight would make a little more sense, but I think his size disadvantage might be too much to overcome. There is an added element that middleweight is in a similar position as welterweight with a dominant champion who is in the process of clearing out the division. If Israel Adesanya were able to defeat Robert Whittaker a second time, I think that eliminates the biggest threat to his title. Whittaker is the clear second to Adesanya and if he were to be down 2-0, his shot at a trilogy would be slim. His following matchup would be the winner of the Brunson vs Cannonier fight and I don't see either one of those guys beating Izzy. That does leave an opening and given how close he's fought Usman plus his heavy wrestling style being the clear counter to Adesanya's kick boxing, maybe he can talk his way into a middleweight title fight? I don't know, I didn't say it was likely but it's at least possible. Maybe he needs one middleweight win over someone like Darren Till? The really interesting one is Khamzat Chimaev. Chimaev is on a meteoric rise through the welterweight division after easily dispatching Li Jingliang as easily as he has the rest of his opponents. Chimaev is now in the rankings is at least one and at most three fights away from his title shot. I think he'll get someone in the 6-9 range in his next fight and then someone in the top 5 before getting a shot at Usman. That top 5 opponent could easily be Colby Covington, which stylistically would be a tremendous test for Chimaev given Colby's high level wrestling and seemingly unlimited gas tank. Beyond the Masvidal fight, Colby has a lot of options, but none of them really stand out. Leon Edwards, Gilbert Burns, Stephen Thompson, and Khamzat Chimaev are all options, but Chimaev is easily the fight with the most intrigue for me and I would assume for most others as well. Does he try to go up to 185 in hopes of a title shot? maybe, but I don't think it's especially likely.
Let's finally get to the reigning, defending, undisputed UFC welterweight champion of the world, Kamaru Usman. There's really not a whole lot for me to say about him. He's firmly locked into the number one spot in the UFC's pound for pound rankings and he is locked in as the second best welterweight of all time as he continues to chase the ghost of Georges St Pierre. For the record, I don't think he's passed Georges yet, but the fact that he's even creating buzz about it really speaks to what Usman is doing. He's creating distance between himself and the pack at this point and he's going to need someone to step up and really push him if he wants to pass Georges in the mind of a lot of people. The next step for Usman is a little bit out of his hands right now. If Leon Edwards defeats Jorge Masvidal next month, Edwards will finally get his title shot in a rematch with Usman several years in the making. If Leon loses then there's an opening for someone to take. Obviously Khamzat Chimaev is on a collision course with Usman at some point, but I think Usman's next defense sometime in the Spring or early Summer would be a little too quick. Usman did say that he wants to spend more time with his daughter so maybe there's an extended layoff and we don't see him until July? In which case Chimaev getting the title shot (if Leon loses) wouldn't be as unrealistic, but I just don't think Usman will go that long without a fight. Literally just now, in real time as I am typing this, it is being reported that Masvidal is injured and will not be fighting Edwards, which I assume means Edwards will get the title shot regardless now. That means less work for me as I now don't have to explain all of the other remaining candidates in as much detail, but I'll give you guys the cliff notes version. I was going to throw out Vicente Luque's name, but because he just missed weight as the back up, I don't think he's in the good graces of the UFC right now and probably wouldn't be given a title shot without another win while making weight without issue. There's also the Gilbert Burns rematch, but after the way that one ended, I don't think anyone is really pushing for that rematch any time soon, especially given the less than exciting performance he had against Wonderboy Thompson. Speaking of Thompson, he would need to get back in the win column, but I'm always down for a Wonderboy fight and under the right set of circumstances, he could find his way there. I don't think I need to see a long winning streak from him in order to think he has a chance in any fight just because he presents so many unique challenges for guys that I believe he can beat almost anyone on a given day. I look at Thompson the same way I see Paul Craig or Charles Oliveira. They are so dangerous in a very unique way that it's almost impossible to predict their fights because their opponents have never been matched up with someone like them. When it comes to what I want to see, I do want to see Leon get his opportunity because I like Leon and he's more than earned it, but I do think Usman would have advantages over him and I would more than likely pick Usman to win that fight. The Khamzat Chimaev fight is the really big one looming off in the distance, but I'm not sure how many more fights Chimaev needs to get there, and that's assuming he wins all of them. I think in between the Leon fight and Chimaev fight there could be an opportunity and I would much prefer to see Wonderboy over Burns and probably over Luque too. Obviously someone could really rise up and make a push in that time whether it's Michael Chiesa or maybe Sean Brady if he can get a win in their fight or if Neil Magny defeats Chimaev. That's way too many if's already and this has been long enough.
That was long winded, but what do you guys think? Did you agree with the decision? Now that Edwards vs Masvidal is off, should they just do Masvidal vs Covington next? If not, what is next for Colby? Who do you want to see Usman get next? Just give it to Leon? How much longer until the Chimaev fight? Do you like Usman to keep his title until then or will someone spoil that potential title fight? Leave any and all thoughts below and thanks for reading.
UPDATE: As this Masvidal/Edwards news is still in progress, we're now getting tweets about how Chimaev is campaigning to get the opportunity against Edwards. Obviously a fight of this magnitude would really expedite the timeline for Chimaev's title shot with a win. I get the feeling the UFC is really going to push Leon into taking this fight, whether he does or not, we'll see. Keep an eye on social media in the coming days because I'm not sure how this will play out given the relationship between Edwards and the UFC. Coming back to update this again as on Twitter, Leon has made it seem as if he has no interest in Chimaev and only wants Usman. I think this is the right move for him personally, but we'll see what the UFC tries to do with him.
There was also something I wanted to mention in the initial post, but then that news threw me off and I forgot to mention it. Since this post hasn't gone live, I could have just gone back and edited it in, but I didn't want to disrupt the flow of what I already did, so I'll just put it in here at the end. I really don't want to see Kamaru Usman box Canelo Alvarez. Obviously, the money Usman would get in a fight against Canelo would be tremendous, so I can't fault him for that, but just as a fan, I have no interest in this at all. I think it's a shame that we have to see MMA fighters call out people from other sports to get the big paydays because they should just be able to stand alone as the greats in their own sport and make plenty of money. More importantly, for as great as Kamaru Usman is, he is sadly mistaken if he thinks he stands a chance against Canelo. That fight would not be close in literally any way. As a fan of MMA, I just don't like having to see our greats go and lose in another sport because in some way it sort of justifies the people who aren't fans. They get to point and laugh and say how much better boxing is and of course you can be fans of both, but I personally don't see them as equal. I think MMA is a much better product right now that consistently puts on bigger fights, better fights, and better overall events. I find it weird that the boxers take so much pride in beating MMA fighters, but then are so against getting in the cage and fighting MMA, but I'm not a fighter so, I don't want to get in there either. I'm sort of going off on a tangent, but I really don't want to see Usman fight Canelo mainly because it just wouldn't be competitive. Anyways, I think that's finally it for this one. If there's anything further in the coming days, I'll just make a new post, especially if Edwards does end up being booked against Chimaev. Thanks for reading and leave your thoughts on anything I said below.
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