Kamaru Usman was looking to match Anderson Silva’s consecutive wins record at UFC 278 on Saturday.
He was also looking to make yet another defense of his welterweight title, this time against Leon Edwards. A rematch of their 2015 meeting, neither man had tasted defeat since that first encounter.
Usman was also still chasing welterweight GOAT Georges St-Pierre, although he still had a ways to go before matching GSP’s nine title defenses at 170 pounds.
In the co-main event of UFC 278, a heated middleweight battle between ex-champ Luke Rockhold and former title challenger Paulo Costa was set to unfold. A win for either would get them back in the title conversation, something especially true for Rockhold, given champion Israel Adesanya seemed to constantly be in need of fresh blood.
The full UFC 278 line-up breaks down as follows:
- Kamaru Usman (c) vs. Leon Edwards – for the UFC welterweight championship
- Paulo Costa vs. Luke Rockhold
- José Aldo vs. Merab Dvalishvili
- Wu Yanan vs. Lucie Pudilová
- Tyson Pedro vs. Harry Hunsucker
- Marcin Tybura vs. Alexander Romanov
- Leonardo Santos vs. Jared Gordon
- Sean Woodson vs. Luis Saldaña
- A.J. Fletcher vs. Ange Loosa
- Amir Albazi vs. Francisco Figueiredo
- Aori Qileng vs. Jay Perrin
- Daniel Lacerda vs. Victor Altamirano
Following tonight’s card, tune in for the post-fight press conference. A live stream is available in the embed above.
