Leon Edwards retained his Welterweight title when he defeated Kamaru Usman in entrance of a raucous 02 Area crowd in London throughout UFC 286 on Saturday.
Throughout the post-fight interview, the victorious Edwards mentioned his subsequent potential opponent whereas throwing a stiff shot at Colby Covington when requested if the controversial welterweight might be subsequent in line to face him within the octagon.
With Covington protesting loudly from his seat cage-side, Edwards superbly dismantled his bid for a title shot.
“That man sat out for like a 12 months and a half, two years,” Edwards stated. “He ain’t fought no one.”
Edwards continued to bypass Covington, hinting that he would possibly as a substitute tackle the winner of Jore Masvidal-Gilbert Burns, whose purchased would be the co-main occasion at UFC 287 in Miami, Flordia, on April 8.
Unsurprisingly, Covington had a rebuttal for Edwards. Returning fireplace, the would-be challenger stated he “did not see something particular” Saturday evening. He additionally questioned the champ’s want.
“It appears to be like like he bought the title and he made his cash, and he is form of cashed out,” Covington stated. “In fact, he will get some home-cooking judging. He bought his little house affair. Now it is time to come see the person.”
Regardless of the aforementioned shutdown dismissal by Edwards, an encounter between him and Covington appears imminent. After the combat, Dana White instructed reporters that Covington deserved the chance and that he “is smart” as Edwards’ subsequent opponent.
Edwards entered Saturday as underdog to Usman forward of their rubber match, however toughed out a win by majority resolution (48-46, 48-46, 47-47) whereas bettering his unbeaten streak to 12 fights.
As for the remainder of the primary card, Marvin Vettori and Jennifer Maia earned unanimous victories over Roman Dolidze (29-28, 29-28, 30-27) and Casey O’Neill (30-27, 29-28, 29-28), respectively.
Gunnar Nelson additionally defeated Bryan Barberena by submission (armbar) solely 4:51 into the primary spherical.
Within the co-main occasion, former interim UFC Light-weight Champion Justin Gaethje took a majority resolution (29-28, 29-28, 28-28) over Rafael Fiziev.
