UFC 296 tickets: Everything you need to know about Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington

After months of being rumored, Dana White finally announced Leon Edwards' next fight on Wednesday.

The UFC welterweight champion will defend his belt for the second time against the 170lbs mainstay Colby Covington in the main event of UFC 296. The pay-per-view event will go down on Dec. 16, 2023, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

In the co-main event of the card, new flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja will face Brandon Royval for his first defense.

The main card will start from 10 pm ET/ 7 pm PT in the U.S. at around 2 am GMT in the U.K. It will be broadcast on ESPN and ESPN+ in the U.S. and BT Sport's TNT Sports platform across the pond.

So far, only the main event and co-main event have been announced for the card.

UFC 296 tickets are not yet open for sale at the time of writing. Once they go live, tickets will be available on Ticketmaster and T-Mobile Arena's official website, among other resale platforms.

Edwards is currently on an 11-fight winning streak, with a no-contest against Belal Muhammad in 2021. His last two outings were against Kamaru Usman, where he bested the former champion both times and even recorded the head kick of the decade in one.

Covington, meanwhile, has lost only to Kamaru Usman two times since 2016. His last fight was a grudge match against friend-turned-foe Jorge Masvidal, which he won via unanimous decision.

Leon Edwards had defied Dana White about fighting Colby Covington

Covington made a surprise return to the UFC earlier in March to weigh in as the backup fighter for the UFC 286 main event title fight between Edwards and Usman. As the headlining bout went ahead without any glitch, Covington took a front-row seat to witness Edwards yet again outclass the man the controversial American had lost to twice.

At the post-fight press conference, White named Covington as the next challenger for Edwards, to which he immediately voiced discontent.

"I don’t know how that makes sense," Edwards said at the press conference. "He hasn’t fought for over a year and a half. Sat out. Not injured. I don’t get how he just slides in for the world title shot when there are other guys in the division that have been active and fighting."

Edwards also hinted that he would like to fight Jorge Masvidal next, had he won against Gilbert Burns, presumably owing to the "three-piece and a soda" history between them. That fight never came to fruition as Masvidal lost to the Brazilian and retired.

He even referred to Covington getting a title shot as 'Dana White privilege' on The MMA Hour.

Covington responded to Edwards with a warning to not 'cross your boss' in an interview with MMA Fighting. It seems like despite his initial defiance, Leon Edwards had to take a step back and take the fight against Covington as his next title defense.

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