UFC 245 Stats And Video Highlights: Kamaru Usman’s Knockout Win Over Colby Covington

Kamaru Usman walked to the octagon last night in Las Vegas as the UFC welterweight champion. When the fifth round of his UFC 245 bout against former welterweight champion Colby Covington began, there was no guarantee that Usman was going to walk out of T-Mobile Arena with the 170-pound title in his possession.

The judges had the fight up for grabs after 20 minutes of action. Judge Derek Cleary had the bout. 39-37 in favor of Usman entering the final stanza. Judge Eric Colon had the contest tied at 38-38, while judge Sal D'Amato had the fight scored 39-37 in favor of Covington headed into the last five minutes of the battle. This, despite the fact Covington fought the fourth round with a broken jaw.

Usman removed the judges from the equation when he knocked Covington down twice in the third round on his way to a knockout win at the 4:10 mark of the fifth round. Despite Covington's protest of the stoppage, the result stood. With the victory, Usman was successful in defending the welterweight crown for the first time. Usman won the title in March via a decision victory over Tyron Woodley. 

Many thought this fight would be decided by who had the better wrestling chops or who could do the better work in close against the cage. The reality was that neither factored into the fight. Instead, these two men, who have always favored their wrestling over their striking, stayed in the middle of the octagon and made the main event of the UFC 245 pay-per-view card a striking battle. Neither man even attempted a takedown through the 24:10 of action.

The final stats favored the champion:

UFC 245 took place last night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN2 and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.