UFC 296 rundown: Covington throws away rare 3rd chance to become champ

Leon Edwards retained the UFC welterweight title on Saturday, defeating Colby Covington via lopsided unanimous decision in the UFC 296 main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

In the co-headliner, flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja successfully made his first title defense with a unanimous decision victory in a rematch against Brandon Royval.

Here are five takeaways from the pay-per-view card.

Covington blew the fight

In the eyes of most MMA fans, Covington didn't deserve to fight Edwards for the title. He had, and still has, only one win - over the now-retired Jorge Masvidal in March 2022 - since challenging Kamaru Usman for the championship in 2021. But Covington was gifted the opportunity by UFC CEO Dana White because he is one of the most prominent fighters in the welterweight division and can sell on pay-per-view.

So, you would have thought Covington would make the most of it, especially considering it was his third attempt to become UFC welterweight champion since 2019 - and, at 35 years old, it seemed likely it would be his last.

Instead, Covington blew it.

For the first time in forever, Covington - usually a cardio machine who thrives in high-pace, aggressive fights - was tentative and did not pressure his opponent. White said Covington looked "slow and old," and, to be honest, the UFC boss isn't far off with that assessment.

Edwards did what he needed to do over the course of five rounds, landing punches and chewing up Covington's lead leg with kicks - he can't be to blame for a lackluster fight. Even on the ground, where Covington - the wrestler - was supposed to have a clear advantage, Edwards did better than expected. Both men scored two takedowns, but Edwards only needed three attempts to get there compared to Covington's 10. Edwards was, at worst, competitive with Covington when the fight hit the floor, and that was impressive in itself.

Covington was the underdog, but it was still a wildly underwhelming performance. Perhaps most frustrating was the lack of urgency the challenger showed. With a minute or two left in the fight, and clearly needing a stoppage to win, Covington got on top of Edwards. But he seemed content to lay on top of him and ride out the round - it was almost as if Covington didn't care about winning at that point.

Perhaps his efforts will make the UFC brass think twice about giving Covington an (undeserved) title shot in the future.

As somewhat of a side note, doesn't it feel like the MMA world is finally tired of Covington's villain act? He got a lot - and I mean a lot - of flack on social media after insulting Edwards' murdered father at Thursday's prefight press conference. Even the biggest heels in UFC history would argue Covington took a shot below the belt by insinuating Edwards' late dad was in "hell." White said Saturday that "going after family" as a way of talking trash is "such a nasty thing to do."

Fans at T-Mobile Arena cheered Edwards and collectively booed Covington after the fight. That hadn't been the case beforehand.

Had Covington won or at least come close to winning, we wouldn't be having this conversation. But the fact he talked a big game, painted himself in a bad light, and then put on a stinker against Edwards - it really isn't a good look. The majority of the MMA community seems to be done with Covington as a fighter and person.

Pantoja No. 1 but still vulnerable

There's one thing more impressive than winning a UFC championship: defending a UFC championship.

After Saturday, we can add Pantoja to the list of champions who have defended their belt. The Brazilian's win over Royval has finally given the flyweight division some stability after the title changed hands twice this year (Brandon Moreno took it from Deiveson Figueiredo and then Pantoja took it from Moreno). It's crazy to think, but Pantoja's victory was the first successful title defense at 125 pounds (not counting a draw) since Figueiredo beat Alex Perez in November 2020.

With one more victory, Pantoja would hold the second-most wins in UFC flyweight title defenses. Of course, he is not even in the same conversation as Demetrious Johnson in terms of dominance. But he is clearly doing something right.

That said, Pantoja is far from unbeatable. I keep thinking about Royval walking him down and landing punches in the fifth round. Pantoja's flat-footed stance and somewhat suspect gas tank could make him susceptible to defeat. He has done well with a high fight IQ - he implemented his grappling at the perfect times against Royval - and a rock-solid chin, but it might be a while before Pantoja convinces everybody he is a dominant force at 125 pounds.

Rakhmonov is a next-level talent

Shame on anyone who was "out" on Shavkat Rakhmonov during that first round against Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson. Sure, it wasn't the most entertaining five minutes of MMA, but anyone can have a boring round - and Rakhmonov still won it.

By choking out Thompson with a rear-naked choke in the second round - and becoming the first person to ever submit the former title challenger - Rakhmonov confirmed what we already knew: This man is a special talent.

The Kazakh welterweight is 18-0 as a pro - 6-0 in the UFC - with a 100% finish rate. That means Alex Oliveira, Michel Prazeres, Carlston Harris, Neil Magny, Geoff Neal, and now Thompson all stepped into the Octagon to face Rakhmonov at some point in the last three years and failed to make it to the final horn. Rakhmonov is the definition of calculated chaos - just when you think he's in a lackluster fight, he's on his opponent's back, finishing them with a tight squeeze.

I'd like to see Rakhmonov get one more test against a top-four welterweight - either Kamaru Usman, Belal Muhammad, Covington, or Gilbert Burns - before he challenges for the title. Those fighters all have a grappling base (Thompson, on the other hand, is a karate-style striker), so it would be interesting to see how Rakhmonov handles that. However, I wouldn't complain if he simply waits to face the Edwards-Muhammad winner. Regardless, if Rakhmonov doesn't wear UFC gold at some point in the future, I'd be shocked.

Muhammad comes out a winner

Going into UFC 296 fight week, there were several ways Muhammad could lose his long-awaited title shot against the winner between Edwards and Covington (a title shot that hasn't been officially granted, by the way, but one that everyone and their dog knows Muhammad deserves).

We'll start in the main event: If Covington had beaten Edwards, a trilogy bout against former champion Usman wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Usman fought at middleweight last time out, but suddenly moving back down to 170 pounds to jump the line and take on his old rival for the belt would have been a very enticing matchup for all parties. Covington didn't win, so that's out. (Usman has lost to Edwards twice, so as long as "Rocky" is king, he isn't anywhere close to a title shot.)

Rising star Ian Machado Garry could've made a lot of fans interested in an Edwards fight had he dusted Vicente Luque in a highly anticipated main-card bout. Instead, Garry withdrew from the contest Wednesday after contracting pneumonia.

And even after Rakhmonov picked up the biggest win of his career against Thompson, no one was screaming for the undefeated contender to get a title shot before Muhammad.

Muhammad, unbeaten in 10 fights, appeared on the pay-per-view broadcast after the UFC 296 main event ended and trashed Edwards and Covington, seemingly trying to hype up the title fight he so badly wants. All in all, Muhammad's title shot seems locked in, even if Edwards isn't overly pleased with the matchup. That's a win for the man known as "Remember The Name."

Ferguson needs to retire

There was a time when Tony Ferguson held the longest winning streak in UFC lightweight history (12). Now, he is tied with BJ Penn for the longest losing streak in company history (seven).

Ferguson losing to Paddy Pimblett is perhaps the most depressing moment yet in what has been an excruciatingly painful downfall for "El Cucuy." He's an all-time lightweight who will never get the respect he deserves among newer MMA fans because he has chosen to step into the Octagon over and over again as a shell of himself. This is a problem across MMA in general, fighters not knowing when to say stop.

Unfortunately, there's no guarantee Ferguson will be stopping any time soon. The 39-year-old was just competitive enough with Pimblett that he might convince himself - and the UFC - that he should get yet another opportunity to snap his losing streak.

But if those closest to Ferguson care about him, they'll tell him he should walk away. He's just going to keep losing and negatively impact his life when he's middle-aged.