5 of the best welterweight fights in MMA history

Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington – UFC 245

Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington’s rivalry developed over years of trash talk that crossed the line multiple times. It was politically charged, personal, and sometimes even cringeworthy. Regardless of the war of words prefight, fight fans couldn’t wait for these two to settle their beef.

In 2018, Covington became the interim welterweight champion at UFC 225, and it had looked as if Covington would challenge Tyron Woodley to unify the belts. However, Covington would butt heads with the UFC during negotiations and in return see Usman be rewarded the title shot instead. Usman would seize the opportunity and win the undisputed welterweight championship at UFC 235 – setting up a much-anticipated title fight between himself and Covington.

At UFC 245, years of building animosity would come to a head when the two bitter rivals finally met inside the Octagon. The two entered the bout with identical records of 15-1 and had similar styles as the two most dominant grapplers in the division. But all grappling was thrown out the window at the opening bell because all these two did was slug it out with strikes for just under 25 minutes.

From the start, these two got after it and set a crazy pace that made you wonder if they could maintain this much action for five full rounds. After just two rounds, the strike totals were 80-74 in favor of Covington. The challenger had great success in his volume of strikes, while the champion was a little more methodical with his strikes and made sure to invest into Covington’s body early on.

The third round was the most lopsided round of the fight with Usman landing nearly 20 more strikes, as well as the most significant strike – a straight right that landed and had Covington telling his cornermen that his jaw was broken in between rounds. The replays shown by the broadcast seemed to echo Covington’s diagnosis and made you speculate if this is maybe the beginning of the end.

Instead, Covington bounced back strong showing tremendous determination and grit in round four. The fourth round, like the first and second rounds, was razor-thin and really could of went either way. Strike totals had Covington lead by the slimmest of margins, 36-35.

The two had been tit for tat for four rounds and even the judges didn’t have a clear winner yet.  Entering the fifth and final round, the judges had rounds scored 3-1 Usman, 3-1 Covington, and an even 2-2. Whoever won the round, would win the fight. However, the judges wouldn’t be needed.

In the fifth round, the Nigerian Nightmare attained championship greatness when he took it into his own hands to declare a winner by dropping Covington twice and securing the TKO victory 4:10 minutes into round five. The TKO made for the second latest finish in UFC title fight history.