Colby Covington Beats Jorge Masvidal Via Decision in Rivalry Match at UFC 272

Colby Covington claimed victory over his former teammate and friend Jorge Masvidal with a unanimous-decision win in the main event of UFC 272 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Masvidal opened the fight with a flying front kick that looked reminiscent of his famous flying knee against Ben Askren. When it didn’t land Covington went for the early takedown. While Gamebred defended his early attempts, he did wind up spending quite a bit of the first round on the defensive or on the ground.

As the fight moved to the second round Masvidal had some success with leg kicks. He also had success putting together some combinations and had Covington on the ground. But he made a miscalculation when he followed him there.

Covington reversed position and ended up threatening with a choke before landing some punches of his own to end the round.

Round 3 turned out to be the kind that Covington loves. He scored an early takedown and never really gave his opponent room to work. Even when Masvidal created a little bit of space it was immediately closed by Chaos.

Ultimately, his ground-and-pound and a choke attempt was enough for some to see it as a 10-8 round for Covington.

Masvidal momentarily turned the tide in the fourth round. He landed a flush right hand that buckled Covingtong temporarily but he didn’t pursue the finish and Covington recovered.

That turned out to be Masvidal’s best chance to pull off the upset. Covington went right back to controlling the fight in the fifth and final round.

Chaos officially has the bragging rights in a rivalry that turned pretty bitter during the lead-up to the fight. With both fighters coming up through American Top Team, the two were once close but saw their relationship deteriorate and Covington leave the gym.

More important for the 34-year-old is that the win will continue to make him relevant in the division.

With both Masvidal and Covington coming into this fight fresh off losses to reigning champion Kamaru Usman, this was a fight for continued relevancy.

Chaos now has that after beating his rival, but he actually seems to have his eyes set on someone outside of the welterweight division. He wants to address another personal beef by taking on lightweight challenger Dustin Poirier.

Leon Edwards is set to fight Usman next with the welterweight belt on the line, but Covington didn’t seem interested in fighting the winner right now.

“I could care less who wins [between Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards],” Covington told reporters. “I’m just worried about my business on Saturday night and handling another personal beef with Dustin Poirier next. That fight needs to happen. He’s talked too reckless in the media.”

Poirier finds himself in a similar situation as Covington was going into this bout. He’s fresh off a loss to the champion. Charles Oliveira has the belt after submitting The Diamond in the third round.

Perhaps he will take the bait and we will see Covington attempt to settle another score while building up another non-title fight to the status of pay-per-view headliner.