The UFC‘s biggest potential grudge match officially has a date. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto was the first to report this afternoon that the promotion had finalized a matchup between Jorge Masvidal (35-15) and Colby Covington (16-3). The news was confirmed by the UFC’s CBO Hunter Campbell.
The matchup will headline UFC 272 on March 5th. We got word that this fight could be coming together over the weekend. Masvidal tweeted at Covington saying the UFC would be calling him about the potential fight. Well, it looks like they did and the fight is on.
This will be the first time that we’ve seen the UFC’s BMF since April of last year. At UFC 261, Masvidal got his second shot at Kamaru Usman. This time, he had a full camp to prepare for the welterweight champion. Unfortunately for Gamebred, the result was much worse.
Masvidal was knocked out cold by Usman and as a result fell down the welterweight ladder. Now, he’s looking to get back on track and he can quickly with this fight against Covington. Originally, Masvidal was set to fight Leon Edwards in December but had to pull out with an injury.
UFC Grudge Match
Like Masvidal, Covington is also coming off of a loss against Kamaru Usman. Covington got his second chance against Usman back at UFC 268 in November. Usman got off to a fast start and nearly finished Covington in the second round.
However, Covington came back strong and made the fight incredibly competitive. In the end, it wasn’t enough and Usman won the fight which made him 2-0 against Covington. Despite being 0-2 against the champion, Covington has proven to the world that he’s at the very top of the division.
As soon as UFC 268 ended, Covington was calling for a fight against Masvidal. Momentum started building over the weekend when news starting leaking that the UFC was moving a couple of title fights from March to April. That move left a vacancy for a big main event at UFC 272.
Now, we know that this grudge match will take center stage in March.