Kamaru Usman brutally stopped Colby Covington with 50 seconds remaining in the fifth round at UFC245 on Saturday, retaining his welterweight title with a spectacular finish to their grudge match.
Alexander Volkanovski took the UFC featherweight title from Max Holloway and became the second Australian champion in the promotion’s history with a tactical unanimous-decision victory. Amanda Nunes defended her bantamweight title with a grinding unanimous-decision victory over Germaine de Randamie at T-Mobile Arena.
Usman (16-1) closed out an occasionally slow fight with Covington (15-2) in thrilling fashion, knocking down the challenger twice with precise punches and then finishing him on the ground.
Photo: AFP
Usman and Covington took a personal animus into the cage and the Nigerian-born Usman made good on his vow to derail the career of Covington, whose personality and support for US President Donald Trump have made him a polarizing figure in mixed martial arts.
“This one is not just for me,” Usman said.
“This is for the whole entire world,” he said.
They started with two busy rounds of striking in which Covington appeared to be landing more blows, but Covington poked Usman in the eye during the third.
Usman responded by bloodying Covington in an impressive third-round flurry and Covington subsequently told his corner that he thought his jaw was broken.
Usman took control from there, gradually finishing Covington in his first defense of the belt he took from Tyron Woodley.
Volkanovski (21-1) picked apart Holloway (21-5) with leg kicks and movement for five frenetic rounds, controlling the bout with style and persistence. The 31-year-old challenger born in a tiny coastal town in New South Wales joins New Zealand-born middleweight Robert Whittaker as UFC’s only Australian champions.
The judges favored Volkanovski 48-47, 48-47 and 50-45. Holloway struggled to land consistent strikes while dodging Volkanovski’s barrage of leg kicks, but the long-reigning champ still appeared surprised and disappointed by the judges’ verdict in just his second loss since 2013.
“It means the world,” Volkanovski said. “I have two kids at home. Everything is about my family. Spending time away from them kills me, but this is for them, a little early Christmas present for them.”
Volkanovski became just the fourth featherweight champion in UFC history, joining Jose Aldo, Conor McGregor and Holloway, who had reigned since 2016.
Volkanovski earned his title shot with 17 straight victories, including seven since joining the UFC, capped by a win over Aldo in May.
“Featherweight has always had great, respectful champions who always fight the next contenders in line, and I appreciate that,” Volkanovski said. “There’s a lot of people who have earned their shot and aren’t given it, so I’m going to make sure everyone who earns it, gets it.”
Holloway has been one of the UFC’s most popular and most durable fighters of the 2010s, winning 13 consecutive bouts before he moved up to lightweight and lost a decision to Dustin Poirier for an interim title last April. He returned in July with a featherweight defense over Frankie Edgar before agreeing to a shot for Volkanovski.
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