UFC 268: Kamaru Usman Defeats Colby Covington To Retain Welterweight Title, Calls Out Canelo Alvarez
“Canelo’s a big scary guy, and he knows I’m a big scary guy if he ever came over here.”
At this point, Kamaru Usman‘s status as MMA’s pound-for-pound king is just about impossible to deny.
Usman was back in action in the main event of UFC 268 Saturday night at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, where he defended his welterweight title against his chief rival, Colby Covington.
The bout was a rematch of a back-and-forth 2019 fight that Usman won via fifth-round TKO. Just like the first fight, the second was a competitive and thrilling affair, packed with big moments and wild momentum swings. And in the end, Usman once again came out on top, this time via unanimous decision.
In victory, Usman is now 20-1 overall, with wins over world-class foes like Leon Edwards, Demian Maia, Rafael dos Anjos, Gilbert Burns, Jorge Masvidal (twice) and Covington (twice).
There are still some interesting challenges out there for him, such as a rematch with the streaking Edwards, a clash with a rising contender Vicente Luque, and a showdown with surging prospect Khamzat Chimaev, but he’s become so thoroughly dominant that it’s going to get increasingly difficult to find him viable challenges.
The man himself, however, knows the challenge he’d like next.
In the lead-up to his fight with Covington, Usman made several calls for a boxing match with pound-for-pound star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Usman’s tune didn’t change after his UFC 268 win over Covington, as he once again called out the Mexican boxer.
“If I’m gonna leave my daughter for another 12 weeks or more, it’s gotta be something that really gets me up,” Usman said at the UFC 268 post-event press conference. “I wanna challenge myself.
“I know a lot of people gonna are talk down or say it’s bullshit,” Usman added. “Don’t get me wrong, he’s a master. I respect it. Last time I was an underdog we saw what happened. We’re the ones willing to go over there and take that risk, [boxers] won’t dare take that risk.”
“Canelo’s a big scary guy, and he knows I’m a big scary guy if he ever came over here.”
Unfortunately for Usman, UFC President Dana White seems to be outwardly against this potential cross-sport showdown.
“I watched Canelo fight tonight,” White said after UFC 268. “You don’t want to fight Canelo. Come on man, let’s stop this shit.”
Canelo, as White suggested, was also in action Saturday night, defending his WBA, WBO and WBC super-middleweight titles and winning the IBF super-middleweight strap with an 11th-round stoppage of Caleb Plant.
UFC 268 also featured a number of other compelling bouts. Most notably, UFC strawweight queen Rose Namajunas defended her title in the co-main event, defeating the division’s former champion, Weili Zhang, by split decision. In victory, Namajunas is 11-4 overall, and very possibly the best strawweight in MMA history.
Elsewhere on the card, Justin Gaethje re-entered lightweight title contention with a thrilling decision victory over former Bellator champ Michael Chandler.
Check out the video highlights above.