He has an argument for the last three and Usman likely should have been deducted a point for his numerous fouls.
He didn't look that good against Colby, his striking is still really rudimentary and his chin isn't exactly made of pure iron.
Yeah dude, it was a great fight! Gaethje was the clear winner but both throwing bombs right until the end. Definitely one of the most exciting fights I've seen in a while.
Over the years MMA has been winning me over. I still tuned in for Canelo, but UFC 268 was the overall better product.
We saw that a couple fights ago when Burns dropped him. Usman is hurtable, I'd like to see him shore up that defense. There is nothing wrong with not looking the best against Covington.
I know it's not a bad thing to not look your best against Covington but it's more the fact that he's still a very rudimentary striker who makes day one mistakes like looking at the floor when he's punching that alarms me. He can throw nice straight punches but the rest of his striking game is severely lacking. As you said, his defense needs to be shored up badly. A guy like Burns may not let him off the hook next time he catches him. Or a guy like Khamzat would simply punish him by detonating on that chin.
Kinda reminded me of when Pascal was poking fun at Hopkins ducking his head and throwing a punch. Lets not get carried away. What has Khamzat done so far? And Usman could have made the fight much easier on himself had he wrestled more, but he is likely trying to be more fan friendly.
To be fair I think Usman and Colby essentially neutralised each other's wrestling for the most part. I just think Khamzat just so happens to be a very strong wrestler and also freakily powerful while being an even bigger weight bully that Usman is. I wouldn't be surprised to see him take over that division.
Usman should wait for Edwards or move up. WW needs a ton of new blood. It's stale. Chandler needs to change his style and work on Cardio. He's so close to being the champ too. I don't see Justin beating Dustin or Olivera.
