By Safiu Kehinde
Nigerian-American fighter, Kamaru Usman has once again proven to be the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ after defeating a rogue Colby Covington to retain his Welterweight Crown at the UFC 268 inside the Madison Square Garden, New York City.
After five grueling rounds, Kamaru won by unanimous decision in his second fight against Covington. Both fighters had once met back in 2019, launching brutal attacks at each other during the first meeting. The first fight saw both men landing more than 300 strikes at the end of which Kamaru won by TKO.
Although such level of brute was not recorded in last night’s fight, but the match was no short of mesmerizing moments as fighters took the main event as the stage of showcasing their newly found skills.
While trying to take a jab at Kamaru, Covington implored wrestling into his attack but Kamaru proved too rugged to be taken down. Having defended 20 out of 20 takedown attempts in his fighting career, Kamaru kept all Covington’s 11 takedown attempts at bay.
The Nigerian Nightmare gave Covington a resilient moment at the second round after dropping his opponent twice with right hands near the end of the round. The strike got the better of Covington as he ended the round injured.
Despite his injury, Covington appeared for the third round, this time with an interior motive. He delivered effective kicks in combination with series of punches that kept Kamaru at the defensive side. Covington’s aggressive body kicks finally paid off when, at the fourth round, one solid kick landed on Kamaru, giving him a taste of his own nightmare as he appeared injured.
The final round had Kamaru getting more advantage on account of his sharp jabs. He wrecked a little more havoc on Covington before the bell went off. At the end of the epic contest, Kamaru won by the scores 48-47, 48-47, and 49-46.
Meanwhile, after the match, both fighters were full of praises at each other’s display. They hugged each other with Kamaru describing Covington as a tough opponent. Covington, on his part, admitted that the Nigerian Nightmare had the better night.
