UFC 268: How the Nigerian Nightmare, Kamaru Usman, defeated Covington to retain his welterweight title

Kamaru-Usman-Nigerian-Nightmare

The fight started with Kamaru Usman dictating the pace as he always does. Covington played it cautiously and was practically reacting to every move Kamaru made.

On a night when all the stars were shining at the grand Madison Square Garden in New York, the Nigerian Nightmare, Kamaru Usman (MMA record: 20 wins, 1 loss) defeated Colby ‘Chaos’ Covington (MMA record: 16 wins, 3 losses) in their second meeting to retain his UFC welterweight strap at UFC 268 to put an end to one of the greatest rivalries in UFC welterweight history.

The Nightmare made his walkout brandishing the Nigerian flag as he always does while vibing and dancing to Burna Boy and DJ Tarico’s hit single, Yaba Buluku. It was the walk of a man who knew exactly what he had to do and exactly how he was going to get it done. This was a typical Usman walkout.

The fight itself was a hard-hitting and absolutely gruelling encounter. As was predicted, it was a feast of fists. As was also predicted, there were lots of wrestling, mostly initiated by the challenger. But Usman did exactly what he said he would do, and that was countering everything Covington threw at him. There is, however, a debate whether Usman lost his 100% takedown defence record on the night.

The fight started with Kamaru Usman dictating the pace as he always does. Covington played it cautiously and was practically reacting to every move Kamaru made. That was a big mistake because Kamaru wins, very easily, every fight he dictates. It wasn’t surprising that Usman won that first round, after bloodying his adversary with some stiff jabs.

The challenger tried to wrestle in that first round but Usman quickly showed him it was a bad idea as he initiated a counter and took Covington down instead. Maybe that was why Covington didn’t try to wrestle in the second round. Kamaru took advantage of that to show his improved level of striking when he knocked down the challenger twice in that second round.

But Chaos came out with renewed vigour in the third round, bringing the fight to Usman with a combination of sleek striking and aggressive wrestling, and generally putting Usman in really uncomfortable positions with his grappling. Once when he changed levels from boxing to wrestling, he appeared to have taken Usman down. UFC legend and former American wrestler, Daniel Cormier, who was one of the commentators thought it was a valid takedown.


Covington continued his aggressive assault in the fourth round with a series of strikes that staggered the champ. But Usman showed why there are levels to these things by snuffing out every Covington offence just when he was hitting his stride with some effective counter punches and grappling.

READ ALSO: UFC268: Usman beats Covington to retain UFC title

Usman showed championship heart in the fifth round, wreaking more damage with his fist while eating Covington’s best shots. The Nightmare seemed to be looking for the finish as he kept pressing and kept being the aggressor even though Covington was countering with beautiful combinations and some scrappy grappling. In the end, the welterweights, both considered two of the best in the world, went the full five rounds.

Three judges scored the fight 48-47, 48-47 and 49-46 in favour of Kamaru Usman. This means two judges thought Usman won three of the five rounds while one judge thought he won four of the five rounds. The winner of each round gets 10 points while the loser gets 9 or less depending on their performance.


The Nigerian Nightmare has now successfully defended his UFC title 5 times and against 3 men; Colby Covington (twice), Jorge Masvidal (twice) and Gilbert Burns. He has extended his record for the longest active winning streak in the UFC (15) and is just one win away from equaling the longest winning streak of all time (16) held by the retired former Middleweight champion, the Brazilian, Anderson Silva.

Source: Premium Time by Ejike Kanife