If UFC 268 carried a theme with it, it was second chances.
A second chance for Colby Covington, against arch-nemesis Kamaru Usman. A second chance for Weili Zhang, looking to reclaim her title against Rose Namajunas.
Maybe a second chance for one of Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler, should either put on a performance worthy enough of skipping over Islam Makhachev for the winner of Charles Oliveira vs. Dustin Poirier.
With their return to New York City, for the first time since 2019, the UFC was pulling out all the stops. The two title fights atop the card were just the half of it. A stacked event, a fourteen-fight card with a ton of familiar names, and that people’s main event between Gaethje and Chandler. It felt like a 2021 All-Violence candidate, as did the main event for that matter.
Surprisingly, ahead of that main event, the chatter had been kept to a dull roar on the part of Colby Covington. After taking trash before, during, and after his first fight with Kamaru Usman, a more reserved “Chaos” entered Fight Week ahead of UFC 268, telling reporters Wednesday that revenge was a dish best served cold — and he’d been dreaming of his revenge for months.
Perhaps in the same vein, welterweight champ Usman had expressed disappointment in himself for fighting emotional in the pair’s first go-round, something he was looking to correct in the rematch.
Would cooler heads prevail during Thursday’s UFC 268 pre-fight press conference? Tune in above starting at 5PM ET to find out.
