Dana White confirms Kamaru Usman vs Colby Covington 2 will take place at UFC 268

Kamaru Usman will defend his welterweight title against Colby Covington for the second time at UFC 268 in November 2021, Dana White told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto.

The pair of welterweights last competed at UFC 245 in December 2019. After four competitive rounds, Usman got the better of Covington via TKO in the final frame.

The date and location of the much-anticipated rematch have not yet been finalized. However, the UFC is hoping to schedule the event at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Kamaru Usman won the UFC welterweight championship in March 2019 after defeating Tyron Woodley. Since then, he has been on a tear in the 170-pound division, knocking out the likes of Covington, Gilbert Burns and Jorge Masvidal. The UFC 268 outing against Covington will be his fifth title defense.

Meanwhile, Covington last stepped into the octagon in September 2020. He defeated Tyron Woodley to maintain his No. 1 rank in the welterweight division.

Usman had said that Covington doesn’t deserve a title shot just yet because of his inactivity. Since their entertaining clash at UFC 245, ‘Chaos’ has fought just once, while ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ has been in three title fights.

However, the UFC president was convinced that Covington would get the next opportunity to stake his claim to the welterweight championship.

Colby Covington said Kamaru Usman would rather retire than fight him in a rematch

Never one to shy away from making audacious statements, Colby Covington previously claimed that Kamaru Usman would prefer to retire from the sport of MMA instead of giving him a rematch.

“So, Marty’s been in there with me. He knows how tough I am. He knows I took multiple rounds off him, concussed him, wobbled him, almost had him finished if he didn’t take a timeout and have to get a breather. So, he knows how tough I am. And he’s refusing to fight me. He doesn’t want anything to do with me. He’d rather retire,” Covington told MMA Fighting after Usman’s win over Jorge Masvidal at UFC 261.

Now that their rematch has been confirmed, we may have a potential trilogy on the table should Covington avenge his previous loss.

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