Leon Edwards retained his Welterweight title when he defeated Kamaru Usman in front of a raucous 02 Arena crowd in London during UFC 286 on Saturday.
During the post-fight interview, the victorious Edwards discussed his next potential opponent while throwing a stiff shot at Colby Covington when asked if the controversial welterweight could be next in line to face him in the octagon.
With Covington protesting loudly from his seat cage-side, Edwards beautifully dismantled his bid for a title shot.
“That man sat out for like a year and a half, two years,” Edwards said. “He ain’t fought nobody.”
Edwards continued to bypass Covington, hinting that he might instead take on the winner of Jore Masvidal-Gilbert Burns, whose bought will be the co-main event at UFC 287 in Miami, Flordia, on April 8.
Unsurprisingly, Covington had a rebuttal for Edwards. Returning fire, the would-be challenger said he “didn’t see anything special” Saturday night. He also questioned the champ’s desire.
“It looks like he got the title and he made his money, and he’s kind of cashed out,” Covington said. “Of course, he’s going to get some home-cooking judging. He got his little home affair. Now it’s time to come see the man.”
Despite the aforementioned shutdown dismissal by Edwards, an encounter between him and Covington seems imminent. After the fight, Dana White told reporters that Covington deserved the opportunity and that he “makes sense” as Edwards’ next opponent.
Edwards entered Saturday as underdog to Usman ahead of their rubber match, but toughed out a win by majority decision (48-46, 48-46, 47-47) while improving his unbeaten streak to 12 fights.
As for the rest of the main card, Marvin Vettori and Jennifer Maia earned unanimous victories over Roman Dolidze (29-28, 29-28, 30-27) and Casey O’Neill (30-27, 29-28, 29-28), respectively.
Gunnar Nelson also defeated Bryan Barberena by submission (armbar) only 4:51 into the first round.
In the co-main event, former interim UFC Lightweight Champion Justin Gaethje took a majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-28) over Rafael Fiziev.
