Leon Edwards is confident Colby Covington is “not as good as everyone thinks”.
On Sunday, he will have a chance to prove it as the welterweight champion looks to make another successful title defence against Covington in the UFC 296 main event in Las Vegas.
Edwards, who has back-to-back wins over Kamaru Usman to his name in the past two years, has been the subject of the standard trash-talking we have come to expect from Covington.
Although the controversial UFC star took things a bit too far earlier this week at the press conference when he sledged Edwards’ late father, with Sean Strickland branding it a “c*** move”.
UFC commentator and lead play-by-play voice Jon Anik posted on ‘X’, formerly known as Twitter, that Edwards was “absolutely seething” 24 hours after the comments.
“Not (at all) suggesting he can’t channel that energy in the right way. Could help him lock in early, but clearly he has been affected by Covington’s comments. Bear = poked,” Anik wrote.
UFC 296: Edwards vs Covington | SUN 17th DEC 2PM AEDT | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports. Starting January 2024, Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel will be the exclusive home of UFC Pay-Per-View events in Australia.
Whether that ends up being a good or bad thing for Covington remains to be seen but Edwards already wasn’t short of motivation heading into Sunday’s fight.
Of course, defending his belt is the main priority but doing so in emphatic fashion will also be a way for Edwards to send Covington into retirement — or at least to another division.
“He’s not as good as everyone thinks,” Edwards said at UFC 296 media day.
“He’s a guy that’s been stopped before by TKO, been choked out before, been taken down before, so there’s many ways that you can beat him.
“He’s just a normal fighter that’s more scrappy, basically. He’s like Usman but more scrappy, basically. Me and the team have come up with a great game plan to neutralise everywhere where he’s good at and my aim is to out and take him out.
“… After I beat him, I truly believe he’s either going to retire or move down, probably. He keeps calling out Islam, so let him go fight Islam at lightweight.”
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The co-main event of the card sees Alexandre Pantoja defend his flyweight crown against Brandon Royval in a highly-anticipated rematch.
Pantoja, who submitted Royval back in August 2021, has wins over Brandon Moreno and Alex Perez since that fight and boasts 10 first-round finishes to his name.
Royval though also has 10 first-round finishes and has won three-straight fights since his defeat to Pantoja, which he said taught him an important lesson.
“I feel like Alexandre Pantoja woke me up to that,” Royval told Morning Kombat late last month.
“I need to change the way I’m going about things because I’m out here doing all these film studies for no reason.
“I’m watching fights every damn day of my life. I’m watching boxing matches every day of my life but then going out there and fighting like an arsehole. I just needed to change my ways for sure.”
Strickland unleashes on Covington | 01:26
Elsewhere, Shavkat Rakhmonov — the No.5 ranked welterweight contender — will look to continue his unbeaten run in the UFC as he faces the legendary Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson.
Rakhmonov, who is the heavy favourite against the two-time title challenger, will be hoping to make the kind of statement that further cements his position as next in line to face the winner of the Edwards and Covington fight.
Earlier, Paddy Pimblett is also expected to deliver fireworks against Tony Ferguson, a former interim champion who is on the decline having lost six fights in a row.
Meanwhile, Australian Casey O’Neill will be in action on the preliminary card as she takes on Brazilian Ariane Lipski.
O’Neill, who has battled injuries over the years, had won nine fights in a row before a stunning decision defeat to Jennifer Maia at UFC 286 in February.
Now she is preparing for her first fight in nine months and has a clear goal in her return to the octagon.
“I bash Lipski then bash somebody else early next year,” she told foxsports.com.au earlier this week.
WHAT TIME DOES THE CARD START?
The early preliminary fights begin at 10.30am AEDT, with Martin Buday and Shamil Gaziev opening up the action in a heavyweight scrap.
O’Neill and Lipski will then enter the octagon for the first preliminary fight at around 12pm, with the main card scheduled to get underway at 2pm.
With that in mind, you can expect Edwards and Covington to face off at around 3.30pm depending on how long the previous fights last.
UFC 296 FIGHT CARD
Leon Edwards (c) vs. Colby Covington — welterweight title
Alexandre Pantoja (c) vs. Brandon Royval — flyweight title
Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson — welterweights
Paddy Pimblett vs. Tony Ferguson — lightweights
Bryce Mitchell vs Josh Emmett — featherweights
Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa — women’s bantamweights
Cody Garbrandt vs. Brian Kelleher — bantamweights
Casey O’Neill vs. Ariane Lipski — women’s flyweights
Dustin Jacoby vs. Alonzo Menifield — light heavyweights
Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Cody Durden — flyweights
Andre Fili vs. Luca Almeida — featherweights
Martin Buday vs. Shamil Gaziev — heavyweights
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