UFC 268: Kamaru Usman Looking For A Flawless Victory Against Covington

New York, NY — The headliner for UFC 268 this Saturday at Madison Square Garden is a rematch and the continuation of a heated rivalry between welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and #1 contender Colby Covington.

There has been nothing subtle when it comes to the bad blood between Usman and Covington. Following their first bout Covington claimed that the fight was stopped prematurely and that Usman had faked getting fouled in order to get time to rest. Usman brushed those claims off during Wednesday’s media day.

“Nothing lingered at all. You guys saw the viral video of me and him talking. When he turned red. It’s simple, it wasn’t a decision, I finished you. Of course he did the best he could. I actually like the fact that he stuck with the excuses and he kept making the excuses because again it made you guys all wanna see that again, right? Yeah he did a wonderful job there. He said ‘Oh it’s a fake eye poke’ when the masses watch you finger my eye,” Usman said.

“He said it wasn’t a nut shot and I got five minutes. He grazed my cup, that’s true. Of course, as a man, when your cup get grazed you anticipate what’s coming after that. That pain. And I was anticipating the pain and after about 30 seconds, you guys can go back and watch the video, literally about 30 seconds I’m like ‘Yeah, that pains not coming, let’s scrap.”

Selling the fight has been the easy part for Usman since Covington has made sure to mention to anyone who will listen that he was robbed in the first fight. One of the biggest talking points from that fight was that Usman broke Covington’s jaw which the latter has claimed never happened. Usman remembers it differently.

“And you saw that, the shot where I broke his jaw, clean off. Clean shot. He was holding his eye, did you guys see that? He was holding his eye he was complaining to the ref that it was an eye poke and even the commentators, DC was like, ‘And that was a straight right hand right on the button.’ And he said it was his eye so who’s actually claiming fouls here? But at the end of the day he’s done a great job of getting the public to believe that. I commend him for that. ”

Trash talkers like Covington try to get their opponent to fight emotionally to try and force them to make a mistake. That has not been lost on Usman coming into UFC 268 as he called it a wrong that he must make right.

“But for me, the wrong that I want to right is just kind of……in that fight I fought with emotion. As much emotion as I was willing to display is what I fought with. Which is why I think I obviously got hit quite a bit, but it was fun. I had fun. That let’s you know that I got a little madman in me too.”

Whether or not the fight ends quickly or goes the entire 25 minutes fight fans can expect one of the best fights of the year in the main event.

Watch the full UFC 268 media day appearance from Kamaru Usman above. More coverage of the event can be found below. UFC 268 takes place Saturday November 6 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY.