Kamaru Usman vs Colby Covington title fight official for UFC 245 on Dec. 14 in Las Vegas
As Dana White likes to say, nothing is official until Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) makes an announcement. And today the promotion announced a much-anticipated Welterweight title fight between division kingpin, Kamaru Usman, taking on former interim champion, Colby Covington.
The two are set to collide at the upcoming UFC 245 pay-per-view (PPV) event on Dec. 14, 2019, inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, while many believe it is set to be the headlining act, the promotion didn’t label it as such ... yet.
The bout was rumored last week by several media outlets, but UFC didn’t make if official until today. The news comes weeks after Covington revealed that UFC tried to low-ball him to fight at UFC 244, a claim that White obviously denied. The fight will be Usman’s first-ever title defense since capturing the strap this past March following a dominant performance against then-champion, Tyron Woodley, at UFC 235, extending his win streak to 14 straight.
As for Covington, he has won seven straight and is coming off a win over Robbie Lawler at UFC on ESPN 5 last August. The promotion tried to book “Chaos” opposite “The Nigerian Nightmare” as the UFC 244 headliner on Nov. 2, 2019, in New York City, but Covington revealed that he wasn’t being offered his worth, blaming UFC’s “slave labor” tactics for the fight going up in smoke.
That said, it’s obvious whatever differences the two sides had are now settled as the 170-pound title scrap will likely headline the promotion’s last PPV event of the year, which includes two other title fights. Indeed, Max Holloway will defend his Featherweight title against Alexander Volkanovski, while Amanda Nunes puts her women’s Bantamweight title on the line against Germaine de Randamie.
