UFC 235 goes down on Saturday night and it’s a loaded card full of big names from top to bottom.
In the night’s co-main event, the UFC welterweight title will be battled over between the champion, Tyron Woodley, and the challenger, Kamaru Usman. Despite not being involved with this fight as many expected him to be in the preceding months, former interim champion of the division, Colby Covington made his presence felt on Thursday.
As Usman was beginning his open workout, Covington showed up and attempted to interrupt things by shouting into his own megaphone as he repeatedly said, “The real champ’s here!” and “You’re boring!”
Covington would mock Usman’s “energy” comments before saying he’ll get knocked out on Saturday and that he’s still No. 2 in the world.
For the often outspoken Covington, he hasn’t fought since UFC 225 in June 2017 when he captured the interim crown by defeating former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos by unanimous decision.
Since then, the American Top Team product has had to deal with a nose injury before attempting to get back into the swing of things with nothing coming to fruition.
As for Woodley and Usman, they have both had their back and forths with Colby Covington over the recent months and for Woodley in particular, even longer than that.
Surely we’ll know more about the situation as the weekend comes to a conclusion.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/28/2019
Arman Tsarukyan believes he’s the only one who can dethrone UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
Tsarukyan and Makhachev will share the Octagon a second time to headline the first UFC pay-per-view of 2025. They will clash for the UFC Lightweight Championship on January 18th. The two had a competitive matchup in their first meeting back in 2019, and it was Makhachev who earned the unanimous decision victory.
UFC flyweight contender Manel Kape has responded to Kai Kara-France.
‘Starboy’ is fresh off his return to the cage at UFC Tampa over the weekend. Back for the first time since a loss to Muhammad Mokaev in July, Manel Kape met the rising Bruno da Silva. ‘Bulldog’ entered the fight riding a four-fight winning streak, but was battered over the weekend. Kape wound up handing the Brazilian a third-round knockout loss.
Daniel Cormier believes he knows the deciding factor in how Colby Covington recovers from suffering back-to-back losses.
Covington stepped inside the Octagon for the final UFC event and fight of 2024. He went one-on-one with surging welterweight contender Joaquin Buckley. Covington’s chin was certainly on display and he ate some hard shots from Buckley, who was as crisp as ever in the standup. While “Chaos” found a little bit of success with his grappling in round two, the damage from “New Mansa” was evident.
One former UFC titleholder believes Khamzat Chimaev would be able to dethrone the current light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
Rumors have been swirling since Pereira took to social media to claim that Magomed Ankalaev will not be his next title challenger. Some have speculated that Chimaev will move up from 185 pounds to challenge Pereira for the gold at light heavyweight.
UFC legend Jon Jones has teased what he could end up doing when he eventually retires from mixed martial arts.
As we know, Jon Jones is widely considered to be the greatest of all time in mixed martial arts. At this point, there are very few fans and pundits who dispute that. At the same time, he’s also the UFC heavyweight champion, and seems to have his eyes set on continuing his historic run next year.
Dan Hooker vs Justin Gaethje is reportedly being considered for a huge possible lightweight collision in the UFC next year.
When you’re talking about the most entertaining fighters in the game, Dan Hooker and Justin Gaethje have to be in the conversation. Throughout the course of their entire careers, they have put on some of the most incredible scraps imaginable. From violent knockouts to all-out wars, these two know how to do it all.
Gilbert Burns has responded to Colby Covington’s callout.
After Burns leaked Chael Sonnen’s phone number, who is now Covington’s coach, ‘Chaos’ called out the Brazilian for his next fight. Covington said he wanted to get payback for Sonnen and felt like that fight also made sense.
UFC welterweight contender Colby Covington wants to fight Gilbert Burns on Chael Sonnen’s behalf.
‘Chaos’ is fresh off his return to the octagon in the main event of UFC Tampa last Saturday night. Back for the first time since a loss to Leon Edwards last year, Colby Covington stepped up on short notice to face Joaquin Buckley. ‘New Mansa’ entered the bout riding a wave of momentum, last scoring a knockout win over Stephen Thompson in October.
