UFC 268: Usman vs. Covington 2 was a very fun event with two champions defending their titles. Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler began the main card in a gruesome standing battle until the cards, with Gaethje taking home the W.
We had two long title bouts that went the full five rounds, so read below for my recap of Rose Namajunas vs. Weili Zhang and Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington.
This first title bout was for the UFC Women’s Strawweight belt, and it was a close bout for sure. Both women started off light on their feet, moving around the cage.
The UFC Odds for this matchup were Rose Namajunas -105 and Weili Zhang -115 at your Top Sportsbooks.
Rose was very accurate with her combinations, but so was Weili with her counters. Weili was even able to gain a takedown in the first and get in her moment against Rose. But once we got back to the second, the two exchanged heavy strikes, and Namajunas ended the round with her own takedown.
Weili was smart with her striking selection, so she was mainly countering the entire night and would eventually shoot for another takedown. Whenever Namajunas landed some of her powerful right hand bunches, Weili would return with a takedown to get control. At the end of the fourth, the two were scrambling on the ground and Rose was able to finish the round on top.
To finish off the fifth and final round, Rose was putting her all into striking; she threw heavy punches and her output picked up its pace to maintain control for the rest of the fight.
Rose Namajunas defeated Weili Zhang via split decision defending her UFC Women’s Strawweight title.
The second title bout was for the UFC Welterweight belt and rematch between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington.
The UFC Odds for this matchup were Kamaru Usman -310 and Colby Covington +240 at your Top Sportsbooks.
This was another dog fight that I would put second to Gaethje vs. Chandler. You could see their patience early on, their heart and soul, and durability throughout the entire five rounds.
Kamaru Usman made sure to keep the fight standing and was picking apart Colby. You should see the damage appear on Colby’s face already by the second round. Usman has shown us he has been working on his takedown defense because it was near impossible to take him down.
Usman was able to knock down Colby twice with his overload of heavy punches, and you could see Colby getting frustrated and ‘egging’ his opponent on.
Covington was landing some good combinations of his own in the third, but Kamaru would be able to regain control and march forward with his strikes.
In the fourth round, Covington was still standing strong and came out aggressive. Sooner than later, the two were exchanging punches and punches. Some nasty uppercuts, stiff jabs, counter hooks. This was a dirty fight, but Usman was durable, powerful, and technical enough to defend his UFC Welterweight title once again. Kamaru Usman won via unanimous decision.
UFC 268 was an excellent card, and had some wild finishes in the prelims.
In the early prelims, Heavyweight Chris Barnett (+240) pulled off a wicked spinning wheel kick T/KO finish against Gian Villante (-130) and prospect Ian Garry (-400) made his debut against Jordan Williams (+300) and won via T/KO in the first round.
Of all the dog winners on this spectacular card: Chris Barnett (+240), Chris Curtis (+24), and Rose Namajunas (-105),
Up next in the UFC is UFC Vegas 42: Max Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez on Saturday, November 13th at the UFC Apex. This will be another fun card with Thiago Moises vs. Joel Alvarez, Cynthia Calvillo vs. Andrea Lee, Ben Rothwell vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima, and many more!
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