0 of 10
Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal are a lot of things.
Soft-spoken, however, is not among them.
The UFC welterweights are so brazenly polarizing, in fact, that the promotion built its March pay-per-view show around the almost unprecedented enmity between them and simply let fans choose sides.
Or perhaps the guess was that they’d drop their $79.99 and hope both would somehow lose.
Regardless, it was the former friends turned enemies atop a 13-bout UFC 272 show, which went live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with early prelims in the 6 p.m. ET hour and didn’t finish until the main event winner was determined shortly after 1 a.m.
The trio of Jon Anik, Michael Bisping and Joe Rogan worked the broadcast table for the ESPN+ production. Megan Olivi took care of the rest of the room for breaking news and feature pieces, while Din Thomas was on hand for technical analysis as well.
B/R’s combat sports team handled its business in the form of a definitive list of winners and losers, which we encourage you to click through and peruse before leaving a viewpoint or two of your own in the comments section.
1 of 10
Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
OK, maybe they should have fought at the presser after all.
Despite the chaos promised by weeks of build-up to Saturday’s main event, the fight itself turned into far more of a monotonous grind than a backyard brawl.
And that was perfectly fine by Colby Covington.
The accomplished collegiate wrestler eluded all of Jorge Masvidal’s attempts at a game-changing strike and turned their five-rounder into a fan-unfriendly unanimous decision that drew as many boos as cheers.
“Anytime Colby closed the distance and got his hands on him, he forced him down to the canvas,” Bisping said. “The story of the fight was forward pressure. Walking forward, throwing shots to get the takedowns.”
The final scorecards were 49-46, 50-44 and 50-45 for Covington, who draped himself in an American flag, looked over at Masvidal and grabbed his crotch at the final horn. After the victory, Covington immediately called out recent lightweight title challenger Dustin Poirier.
Covington successfully employed his strategy in each of the five rounds, consistently charging forward with punches to get an opportunity to get to Masvidal’s body and get him to the floor.
He was 3-for-5 on takedown tries in the first round alone, establishing more than three minutes of control time and setting the script that repeated in every round.
Masvidal’s strike attempts became less threatening as he grew more fatigued, though he did land a counter right hand in the fourth that dropped Covington to a knee for an instant.
However, the Miami-based fighter, who’d lost title challenges to Kamaru Usman in each of his last two outings, didn’t have the energy to press the advantage.
“I should have had more moments like that,” he said.
Covington scored two more takedowns while avoiding damage in the fifth round and finished with six takedowns for the fight and more than 16 minutes of control time.
The two fighters never touched gloves or embraced after the fight. In fact, Covington left the cage immediately after his callout of Poirier and Masvidal was noticeably drained in his interview with Rogan.
“I was offbeat with the wrestling. I needed to wrestle harder,” he said. “My wrestling wasn’t there today. I was flat.”
2 of 10
Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
Renato Moicano is a tough guy.
And no one, regardless of rooting interest, could argue that.
But as he stumbled off his stool with a bloody nose and a hideously swollen left eye to begin the fourth round of a co-main against former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos, they shouldn’t have had to.
Still, referee Marc Goddard and a ringside physician let it continue throughout the fourth and into the fifth, even though Goddard suggested that he’d only allow 30 seconds if Moicano didn’t rally.
He didn’t. And the beating continued.
Even the rugged Rogan and Bisping intermittently suggested enough was enough.
“In MMA, you don’t see corners stopping fights enough,” Bisping said. “His eyesight could be damaged. He’s got heart. Let him prove it again in his next fight.”
Rogan agreed.
“That’s enough,” he said. “If you’re letting him go on, you’re just letting him get beaten up for another five minutes.”
The stoppage never came. The crowd roared at Moicano’s toughness, and Bisping changed his tune by the time the final round ended and Dos Anjos got 49-45, 49-44 and 50-44 scorecard wins.
“[Moicano] will always have my respect,” Bisping said. “The man is unbelievably tough.”
3 of 10
David Becker/Getty Images
Kevin Holland was clearly annoyed at his situation.
Alex Oliveira rattled the middleweight-turned-welterweight with punches, tossed him to the floor and attempted a choke as the first round of a scheduled three-rounder ended.
But rather than struggling to avoid a submission, Holland waved his finger and shook his head toward his corner as the session ended, then stood attentively as his trainer implored him to turn things around.
Clearly, he listened.
Holland took the initiative from the instant Round 2 began, quickly driving Oliveira to the floor with a strike. He then pounced with a barrage of punches and elbows until the bout was waved off by referee Chris Tognoni after just 38 seconds of the second session.
It was Holland’s first fight at 170 pounds after he began his UFC career with 13 bouts at 185.
“Everyone else wanted to get a belt and go up a weight class,” Holland said. “I wanted to eat cookies and go down a weight class. My lungs never even got tired. It was awesome.”
He landed 31 significant strikes to Oliveira’s 19—despite the difficulties in the first round—then landed 19 to just two in the second.
“[Oliveira] really came to scrap,” Holland said. ‘I came to bang, He came to bang, too.’
4 of 10
Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
An angry Greg Hardy turned and snarled, looking menacing.
Problem was, it was at a UFC official who’d come in to check on him as he lay flat on his back.
The ex-Carolina Panther and Dallas Cowboy wasn’t nearly as impressive when his aggression might have mattered.
Instead, he was tossed around the cage like a 266-pound sack of potatoes by Moldovan heavyweight Serghei Spivac on the way to a first-round TKO loss.
A winner in four of nine bouts since arriving to the promotion in 2019, Hardy had to cut 20-plus pounds to make the contracted 266 pounds for Saturday’s fight. He appeared to have put much of that weight back on before the bout and dwarfed his opponent size-wise but was hip-tossed to the mat within the first minute and never landed anything approaching a relevant strike before Spivac seized momentum.
Hardy regained his feet following an initial takedown but was on the mat several more times before ultimately staying there when Spivac established position on Hardy’s left side. He delivered a volley of a dozen or so punches as Hardy turtled and prompted a rescue from referee Marc Goddard.
The end came at 2:16 of the first with Hardy semi-conscious until he was jostled and swung around angrily at the aforementioned official. He calmed down within a few seconds, though, and was back on his feet to congratulate Spivac soon after.
It may be the end of the octagonal line for the 33-year-old, who was on the last fight of his UFC contract.
“Greg Hardy is very big opponent. But I was ready for this,” Spivac said. “I prepped six months for this fight. I needed to move, I wanted to catch him on a mistake, and I did.”
5 of 10
Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
Betting on a main-card commodity is one thing.
But managing to make a profit on lower-profile prelim fights is another.
The wagering wheat was separated from the chaff during the initial bouts, where prudent outlays across the board—based on results—could have yielded a hefty profit.
Favorites won four of the first eight encounters, but the biggest needle-mover was the prelim finale when the -235 pick (bet $235 to win $100) Tagir Ulanbekov lost by unanimous decision to +190 underdog (bet $100 to win $190) Tim Elliott.
The 35-year-old American got the win by 29-28 scores on all three cards.
Joining Elliott as plus-money winners were Maryna Moroz at +150, Ludovit Klein at +135 and Nicolae Negumereanu at +115.
Bets on all eight underdogs would have netted a $190 profit while having picked the winner in all eight bouts would have yielded a $990 windfall.
6 of 10
Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
Jalin Turner is a calm fighter. Almost eerily so.
But that doesn’t mean he’s not violent.
A uniquely tall fighter at 6’3″ and 156 pounds, the 26-year-old was a study in cool efficiency throughout a scheduled three-rounder with Jamie Mullarkey.
Though the aggressive Australian was consistently busy and dangerous, Turner never strayed from his precise and sharp combinations and had his foe reeling and bloody while landing 39 of 87 significant strike attempts—a 44-percent connect rate—in the first round.
“I practice a lot of inside fighting,” Turner said. “I’m just composed everywhere. Wherever the fight goes, I’m good. I just want to keep going forward, keep excelling and keep finishing.”
The routine continued in the second round, and the end came when Turner landed a short, powerful right hook that sent Mullarkey wobbling to the floor. He instantly pounced and landed nearly all shots in a follow-up 11-punch combination until referee Herb Dean intervened after 46 seconds.
It was his fifth win in seven UFC appearances and fourth in a row, all by finish.
“Jamie Mullarkey is a young, tough, promising kid, and Jalin Turner just took it to him,” Bisping said. “This was just sensational. This kid’s for real. He’s gonna go a long, long way.”
7 of 10
Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
Of the 13 bouts on the card, only one featured a pair of Top Five contenders.
So it’s no surprise that strawweights Marina Rodriguez and Yan Xiaonan were primed and ready for prolonged combat in their scheduled three-rounder in the prelim card’s penultimate bout.
“A lot of people felt that this should be on the main card for the pay-per-view show,” Rogan said. “But I think it’s a good showcase on ESPN because it’s getting seen by a lot of people.”
Xiaonan ranked fourth at 115 pounds, and Rodriguez, one slot ahead at No. 3, arrived with a combined 11-2-2 in 15 UFC bouts and competed almost exclusively on the feet for the first two rounds.
Each woman had her moments of control, with Rodriguez pressing forward to force the action, while Xiaonan did well with counter shots thanks to smoother footwork and an edge in hand speed.
Rodriguez’s trainer was animated in her corner heading into the final round, and Rodriguez responded, landing powerful shots in spite of cuts around her right eye. She pressed Xiaonan to the fence in the final 30 seconds and scored with a pair of sharp elbows, perhaps punctuating what became a narrow split decision victory, with two cards giving her a 29-28 margin and the other scoring Xiaonan a 29-28 edge.
“I knew where I was because my coaches were telling me,” Rodriguez said. “I knew I had to come after her in the third. I had a bad first round. I was pretty sure I won the second and third. But you never know with the judges. I’m ready for the belt. I am next. I need, and I want to be the new champ.”
Xiaonan landed significant strikes at a higher rate in rounds one and two, respectively, before Rodriguez rallied for a definitive 40-18 edge in that category in the third.
“What a sensational fight from start to finish,” Bisping said. “A lot of aggression from both ladies. They really left it all out there tonight.”
8 of 10
Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
So, Saturday’s main event was all about a rivalry born from friendship.
But if you think that theme was limited solely to the marquee fight, think again.
Flyweights Maryna Moroz and Mariya Agapova were also training partners at the American Top Team gym, but their camaraderie devolved into accusations of drug abuse and threats to former teammates.
They brought their newfound disdain for one another to the cage in the opening bout of the card’s prelim portion, where Moroz, a native of Ukraine, got an audible bump from the crowd during introductions.
The 30-year-old used that energy and ended a two-year layoff—her previous fight was March 14, 2020—with an aggressive attack that saw her get Agapova to the mat early and forced her to fend off a submission attempt. Agapova got through the initial five minutes but soon found herself under siege again, ultimately succumbing to a volley of punches followed by a triangle choke.
The end came at 3:27 of the second.
“My fight is easy compared to what is going on back home,” Moroz told Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated.
“It’s very hard for me. My family is in the Ukraine. My mother, father, sister, they’re all there. I still hear my mother telling me, ‘You have a fight. You need to be strong.’ But I worry so much. I am always thinking about my family and thinking about Ukraine, all the time.”
9 of 10
Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
Both are 35 years old. Both were facing Russian opponents with spotless UFC records.
And both, to differing degrees, were underdogs.
Yet the Saturday night experiences for octagonal vets Tim Elliott and Brian Kelleher were quite different.
A native of Kansas now fighting out of Missouri, Elliott came up against streaking flyweight Tagir Ulanbekov—a pupil of ex-lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov who’d won two straight fights in the UFC and five in a row overall since last tasting defeat in August 2018.
But rather than falling prey to the submission specialist, Elliott confounded his foe both from a distance and up close through the fight’s early portions, dropping him with a left hand in the first round and handling him well in grappling exchanges across the first 10 minutes.
Ulanbekov had his best moments in the final round and ultimately got to Elliott’s back in the final two minutes and chased a rear-naked choke, but Elliott managed to maintain his composure and avoid a compromising position while holding on to the horn and earning 29-28 verdicts in his favor on all three scorecards.
Kelleher, meanwhile, wasn’t quite so successful in his evasive maneuvers.
The New Yorker was up on short notice against Khabib’s cousin Umar, who’d won 13 straight since debuting as a pro in 2016 and submitted Sergey Morozov in two rounds in his UFC debut 14 months ago.
And rather than finding the sort of success managed by Elliott one fight prior, Kelleher was on the short end of a mat scramble in the early going and soon found himself with Nurmagomedov on his back.
The requisite rear-naked choke came soon after, and Kelleher was done at 3:15 of the first.
Afterward, Nurmagomedov said he’d fight next week if needed and said he’d go forward as a bantamweight rather than the featherweight limit contracted this time due to the late substitution.
“He’s a strong fighter,” Nurmagomedov said, “and I’m very happy that I got a win.”
10 of 10
Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
Main Card
Colby Covington def. Jorge Masvidal by unanimous decision (49-46, 50-44, 50-45)
Rafael Dos Anjos def. Renato Moicano by unanimous decision (49-45, 49-44, 50-44)
Bryce Mitchell def. Edson Barboza by unanimous decision (30-25, 30-26, 30-27)
Kevin Holland def. Alex Oliveira by TKO (punches), 0:38, Round 2
Serghei Spivac def. Greg Hardy by TKO (punches), 2:16, Round 1
Preliminary Card
Jalin Turner def. Jamie Mullarkey by TKO (punches), 0:46, Round 2
Marina Rodriguez def. Yan Xiaonan by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Nicolae Negumereanu def. Kennedy Nzechukwu by split decision (29-27, 27-29, 29-27)
Maryna Moroz def. Mariya Agapova by submission (arm triangle), 3:27, Round 2
Early Preliminary Card
Umar Nurmagomedov def. Brian Kelleher by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:15, Round 1
Tim Elliott def. Tagir Ulanbekov by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Ludovit Klein def. Devonte Smith by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
Dustin Jacoby def. Michal Oleksiejczuk by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Gambling Problem? Call (877-8-HOPENY) or text HOPENY (467369).
If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), visit OPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).
Odds and lines subject to change. 21+ (18+ NH/WY). AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NH/NJ/NY/OR/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for full terms and conditions.
Note: This article have been indexed to our site. We do not claim legitimacy, ownership or copyright of any of the content above. To see the article at original source Click Here
