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Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
Colby Covington will be keeping a close eye on the UFC 261 main event between welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal because he’s expected to face the winner.
That’s according to UFC president Dana White, who confirmed that Covington would be next in line for a title shot against the last man standing in the Usman vs. Masvidal fight on Saturday night from Jacksonville, Fla.
Covington previously lost to Usman in 2019 when he suffered a fifth-round knockout loss that also ended with his jaw being broken. Despite that setback, Covington and Usman shared Fight of the Night honors and since that time the former interim champion earned a finish against Tyron Woodley to put him back into title contention.
Early stoppage? Refs McCarthy, Goddard have opposing thoughts on Jake Paul vs Ben Askren
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Photo by Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for Triller
Calls of a fix didn’t take long to roll in after Jake Paul sent Ben Askren to the canvas in the headliner of their cruiserweight fight for Triller Fight Club.
But the only forgone conclusion, per veteran combat sports official Marc Goddard, was that Askren was not going to come back from the damage he took, and he believes referee Brian Stutts made the right call Saturday in Atlanta.
The referee made the right call for Ben Askren. No work. No conspiracy. No one was “in on it”. Just a referee preventing a forgone conclusion. We don’t always need to see a kill shot. Marc Goddard (@marcgoddard uk) April 18, 2021
Top contender Colby Covington told his rival, UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, to “show the world some balls” and fight him again.
Covington and Usman met back at UFC 245 in December 2019. In what was Usman’s toughest test to date, Covington took him late into the fifth round in a tooth-and-nail fight. In the last minute of the fight, Usman landed the knockout blow when he broke Covington’s jaw and referee Marc Goddard stopped the fight. Covington to this day swears it was a quick stoppage and badly wants the rematch. However, to this point, Covington hasn’t been able to get a second fight with Usman, who instead chose to rematch Jorge Masvidal.
Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping believes that there should be tougher penalties to fighters who land illegal knees.
Bisping himself was at the center of controversy with an illegal knee when he landed one on veteran Jorge Rivera at UFC 127 in February 2011. Bisping was given a one-point deduction by referee Marc Goddard for his infraction, but he ended up winning the fight in the second round via TKO after Rivera continued despite the illegal knee. Re-watching the fight shows that Rivera was concussed and the doctors should have stopped the fight. But because they didn’t, they allowed an already damaged fighter to go back into the Octagon and take more punishment. Bisping did what he had to do when he finished off the job in the second round with punches, but either way, he knows the situation first hand.
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