UFC: Usman Reveals The Reason For Denying Covington A Rematch

UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman has made it clear that he has no intentions of giving Colby Covington an immediate rematch.

The two faced each other at UFC 245 main event for the welterweight title. In the spectacular bout, both fighters went to war but it was Usman who was victorious at the end of the night. After a great number of vicious exchanges between the two, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ was able to TKO Covington in the fifth round. This bout won them the ‘Fight of the Night’ and is considered one of the best fights of 2019.

Because of the nature of the fight, many members of the MMA community have argued their case that Covington deserves an immediate rematch. Usman however, believes otherwise. Speaking to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto (transcribed by BJPenn.com), the champion said that even though he can see the rematch happening at some point in the future, it’s not on his list as of now.

“A lot of people are saying ‘rematch with Colby, rematch with Colby’, like, why the f*** does Colby deserve a rematch?” Usman said. “Was he the champion that I just took the belt off of? That’s the craziest thing to me. A contender fights for the belt and gets knocked out, and then everyone is like ‘rematch?’ For what? But down the line, I would absolutely love to fight him again because it was a fun fight. I had as much fun in that fight as everybody had watching the fight. But for everyone saying ‘you need to do that rematch’, for what? Was he the champion? No, I was the champion, and I went out there and defended my belt.”

In the past few days, there have been a lot of speculations about Usman’s next opponent. The most common names so far have been Jorge Masvidal and Conor McGregor. Although, UFC president Dana White has dismissed talk of the Irishman challenging Kamaru for the title. Instead stating that ‘Gamebred’, Covington or Leon Edwards will fight for the 170lbs title next.

Covington, who parted ways with his long time gym American Top Team earlier this week, has been campaigning for an immediate rematch with Usman.

Do you think Colby Covington deserves an immediate rematch with Kamaru Usman?



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