Well the UFC is completely changing around their current plans after the news yesterday. Yesterday, we learned that the upcoming headliner between Leon Edwards (18-3) and Khamzat Chimaev (9-0) was off. The third time that fight’s been cancelled.Â
The promotion decided to move forward and they’ve been working on a new fight for Edwards. Edwards stated on Twitter today that he was interested in fighting Nate Diaz. His management has said he’d take a fight against Diaz, Jorge Masvidal (35-13), or Colby Covington (16-2).
Currently, the UFC had been working on a fight between Masvidal and Covington. It’s the fight that the world has wanted to see and there had been rumblings about those two coaching the next season of The Ultimate Fighter.
However, with the news yesterday, the UFC has switched things up. After today’s weigh-ins, Dana White took to the podium to take questions from the media. When asked about Edwards, White said that the promotion was looking to book Edwards against Colby Covington in a title eliminator.
What does the UFC do now?
Tomorrow night at UFC 258, the welterweight title is on the line between Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns. There is not a clear number one contender lined up to take on the winner of that fight.
For the last few months, the expectation was that Covington and Masvidal would fight in a title eliminator. However, that fight has been slow developing and it still hasn’t been finalized. Now, with the Chimaev news, the UFC appears to be willing to move on.
The word as of now is that there is momentum towards the Covington – Edwards fight which would leave Masvidal without an opponent for now. Covington and Edwards would fight next month to see who would be the UFC’s number one contender.
My guess is that the promotion would shift back to doing the BMF rematch with Masvidal and Nate Diaz (20-12). Originally, that was the plan for the promotion. However, they switched gears in December and tried to book Masvidal – Covington. This is definitely a situation to keep your eyes on.