UNITED STATES: A welterweight grudge match between former best friends became rival Colby Covington, and Jorge Masvidal headlined Saturday night’s UFC 272 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as a rare non-title fight.
During the buildup to the fight, Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal had a falling out. However, once the fight began, Covington dominated en route to a unanimous decision on the scorecards: 49-46, 50-44, and 50-45.
Covington (17-3) is one of the best wrestlers in the welterweight division, and he also has excellent stamina. Colby Covington’s striking game is very underrated, and all of this was on display in a rinse-and-repeat performance over five rounds.
The veteran Masvidal (35-16), who appears to be on the decline, showed a little glimpse of his former self when he dropped Covington to one knee in the fourth round with his best punch of the fight, but he never got anything going.
Covington has won nine of his last eleven fights, with the two losses coming at the hands of UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. In contrast, Jorge Masvidal has now lost three consecutive fights.
Renato Moicano demonstrated great bravery in accepting a fight against the former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos on just five days’ notice and flying in from Brazil for a five-round, 160-pound catchweight fight in the evening co-feature bout.
But the superlatives stopped there, as dos Anjos (31-13) won a unanimous decision over Moicano (16-5-1), who fought just three weeks ago at UFC 271. The judges’ scores were 49-45, 49-44, and 50-44, respectively.
From the start, Dos Anjos dominated all aspects of the fight.
Dos Anjos landed a perfect head kick in the third round before laying down a brutal beating on the mat. Moicano made it to the end of the round. Between rounds, with his left eye nearly shut, the ringside doctor examined him and inexplicably cleared him to continue.
Dos Anjos dominated once more in the fourth, and the doctor cleared him once more. In the fifth round, Dos Anjos took his foot off the gas pedal and cruised to his 20th career UFC victory.
Also Read: UFC 272: Things Got Heated between Masvidal and Covington at the Final Press Conference
