UFC 268: Previewing Usman-Covington 2 and the Rest of the Card

While most fight fans are still digesting last weekend's epic UFC 267 card in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the promotion is already serving up another heaped plate of MMA action on Saturday's UFC 268 card in New York City. 

Just like last weekend, UFC 268 is stacked to the brim with top talent, and the event will be topped by a welterweight title rematch between champion Kamaru Usman and challenger Colby Covington.

Usman won their first fight via fifth-round TKO, but the bout was competitive until the final blow, and both men are determined to leave the cage victorious the second time around.

UFC 268 will be co-headlined by another anticipated championship rematch, as strawweight queen Rose Namajunas takes on former champion Zhang Weili, who she beat via first-round knockout in April to win the strap. 

Arguably the most anticipated feature of the entire card will go down before Usman and Namajunas attempt to defend their titles, as lightweight destroyers Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler collide in a bout rife with title implications.

As if those three bouts weren't enough to drive interest, the event also features appearances from legends such as Frankie Edgar and a number of compelling prospects.

Keep scrolling for a look at the card's most important fights.

          

Main Card | 10:00 p.m. ET on ESPN+ pay-per-view.

Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington

Rose Namajunas vs. Weili Zhang

Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Chandler

Shane Burgos vs. Billy Quarantillo

Frankie Edgar vs. Marlon Vera

           

Preliminary Card | 8:00 p.m. ET on ESPN+

Alex Pereira vs. Andreas Michaildis

Al Iaquinta vs. Bobby Green

Phil Hawes vs. Chris Curtis

Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Nassourdine Imavov

Ian Garry vs. Jordan Williams

         

Early Preliminary Card | 6:00 p.m. ET on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+

Gian Villante vs. Chris Barnett

Aleksa Camur vs. John Allan

Melsik Baghdasaryan vs. TJ Laramie

CJ Vergara vs. Ode’ Osbourne

It could easily be argued that a champion's dominance can be measured by how quickly they're forced to start recycling challengers they've already vanquished.

Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, Jon Jones and Demetrious Johnson—four of the most dominant champions in UFC history—were all ultimately forced to take on men they'd already beaten before, due in large part to the fact that they'd already beaten everybody else available.

Despite being just four defenses into his title reign, current UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman (19-1) is now firmly in that territory himself. In the UFC 268 main event, just seven months after he knocked out Jorge Masvidal, whom he'd already beaten by decision in 2020, Usman will take on yet another familiar foe: Colby Covington (16-2). 

Usman and Covington first met in December 2019, in those blissfully ignorant days when terms like "coronavirus" were only just entering our lexicons. Their fight went down as one of the best of the year.

The pair of wrestlers spent the first four rounds flaunting their shockingly effective kickboxing and entered the fifth and final round dead even on many viewers' scorecards. In the end, Usman was able to put a stamp on things with a fifth-round TKO, but Covington was adamant the stoppage came early, and has been chomping at the bit for a rematch ever since. 

"Man, I feel like a little kid before Christmas," Covington told TMZ ahead of his UFC 268 rematch with Usman. "I'm so excited I finally got what I've been begging for and what I earned." 

Usman and Covington's first fight suggested they're very evenly matched. That could still be true, but it's also possible their imminent do-over will unfold quite differently from their first encounter.

Usman, in particular, has seemingly improved leaps and bounds since then—a scary thought for his opposition—most notably affirming that he's discovered some latent knockout power with stoppages of Gilbert Burns and the aforementioned Masvidal.

"I want to outclass a guy," Usman told Helen Yee of his rematch with Covington recently. "I want a guy to go home, when they lay down in bed at night they're like, 'S--t, that guy's better than me. There was nothing I can do to beat him.' That's what I want. That's the feeling that I want to live with these guys each and every time they compete against me. So whether I finish him or not, I want him to have that feeling. But of course, the finish is great and that's something that people highly anticipate from me right now.”

Covington has fought once since his loss to Usman, dominating Tyron Woodley to a fifth-round TKO in September 2020, and thus hasn't had as many opportunities to show off any improvements he's made. That being said, he's had almost two years to strengthen in his game and also moved his training from American Top Team to Master's MMA, so it's safe to assume he'll be a new fighter this Saturday. 

Who wins the rematch is anyone's guess, and that's exactly what makes it so exciting.

The UFC 268 co-main event slot will also go to a rematch, as strawweight champion Rose Namajunas (10-4) looks to defend her title against the woman she won it from in April: China's Zhang Weili (21-2).

Prior to losing the title to Namajunas, Zhang had defended it just once, in a 2020 classic against Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Ordinarily, a reign that brief wouldn't earn a defeated champion an immediate shot at redemption, but Zhang was helped by her booming superstardom and the fact that she was knocked out by a Namajunas head kick in just 78 seconds. The fight was fast enough to feel a little fluky. 

"There's still a lot of people who still want to see a real fight between me and Rose," Zhang, who has recently been training with Henry Cejudo, said on The MMA Hour last month. "Because last time the fight did not even start.

"After the fight I made a statement on social media that I want a rematch and I believe that there's a lot of the audience that wants to see a rematch. I really appreciate the UFC giving me this opportunity and also Rose for taking this fight."

Namajunas, of course, is adamant that her first win over Zhang was no fluke and has vowed to finish her again this Saturday, whether it's with the same kick or a fresh maneuver. 

"I'm always gonna be throwing those kicks now," Namajunas told The Schmo ahead of UFC 267. "That was just kind of one of 10 ways that I see myself finishing her."

The title fights atop the UFC 268 bill are generating most of the headlines, but among hardcore fans, the real main event will go down earlier in the night, when Justin Gaethje (22-3) and Michael Chandler (22-6) collide.

Gaethje, the former World Series of Fighting lightweight champion, has gone 5-3 since joining the UFC, losing only to former champions Eddie Alvarez, Dustin Poirier and Khabib Nurmagomedov, and defeating the likes of Edson Barboza, Donald Cerrone and Tony Ferguson. He hasn't fought since a failed title bid against Nurmagomedov in 2020, but he remains the UFC's No. 2-ranked lightweight contender. 

Chandler, meanwhile, is the former Bellator lightweight champion and has gone 1-1 since he joined the UFC since he joined the promotion in 2020, first defeating Dan Hooker by first-round knockout, then losing to Charles Oliveira by second-round knockout in his first bid at UFC gold. He's sitting at No. 4 in the UFC's lightweight rankings.

The real appeal of this fight is not that Gaethje and Chandler are elite lightweights, but that they're two of the most consistently exciting fighters in MMA history. Both men are known for their high-action styles, and all signs point to a wild fight this Saturday.

"The dude comes to fight," Gaethje told The Schmo recently. "He loves fighting just as much as me. Styles make matchups, and this is a stylistic matchup for the fans. Someone's going to get knocked out—unless he turns into a b---h and tries to turn this into a wrestling match the whole time.

"I'm excited to go in there and put on a show."

Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar (24-9-1) is widely considered one of the greatest fighters of his generation, but the New Jersey-born legend seems to be nearing the end of the road.

He's been been beaten in four of his last six fights, including a trio of violent knockouts at the hands of Brian Ortega, Chan Sung Jung and most recently Cory Sandhagen.  

Edgar, now competing in the 135-pound bantamweight division, will look to back on track in the first bout of the UFC 268 main card, when he takes on rising Ecuadorian star Marlon "Chito" Vera (19-7-1).

Vera has been around for quite awhile, but finally entered the MMA limelight in earnest when he chopped down and knocked out bantamweight prospect Sean O'Malley in August, 2020. While the Ecuadorian lost his next fight, coming up short against two-time Frankie Edgar foil Jose Aldo, he's since rebounded with a win over Davey Grant, and undoubtedly recognizes what a win over a name like Edgar would do for his career.

Edgar, meanwhile, no doubt senses that a loss to Vera at UFC 268 could mark the end of his time in the UFC—perhaps the end of his career outright.

The stakes couldn't be much higher for either man.

Alex Pereira vs. Andreas Michailidis

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has only lost once in MMA, giving up a decision to former UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz earlier this year. While that's the only loss on his MMA record, he has come up short in other sports, most notably being knocked out by Brazil's Alex Pereira in the kickboxing ring in 2017.

On the UFC 268 undercard, Pereira, who is now 3-1 in MMA, will make his UFC debut against dangerous Greek prospect Andreas Michailidis (13-4). Michailidis, who has fought all over the world, is now 1-1 in the UFC, having rebounded from a TKO loss to Modestas Bukauskas in his debut with a decision win over KB Bhullar in May.

Both men seem to have bright futures in MMA, but at UFC 268, the majority of eyes are likely to be on Pereira, who based infamous kickboxing knockout of Adesanya, could conceivably be fast-tracked to an MMA rematch with the middleweight champ.

           

Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Nassourdine Imavov

It wasn't long ago that Ronda Rousey-protege Edmen Shahbazyan (11-2) was being talked about as a potential middleweight title challenger. Just like his mentor, however, he's plummeted from the pinnacle in a remarkably short time. 

After an 11-0 start to his pro career, Shahbazyan has now lost his last two, first being TKO'd by Derek Brunson, then losing a decision to Jack Hermansson. Still clinging to the No. 11 spot in the middleweight top-15, he'll look to get back on track when he takes on France-based Russian Nassourdine Imavov (10-3) on the UFC 268 undercard. 

Imavov recently rocketed up the middleweight ladder with a knockout win over the highly regarded Ian Heinisch. If he defeats Shahbazyan—which the odds suggest he'll do—he'll most likely earn himself a spot in the top-15. Shahbazyan, meanwhile, will most likely exit the rankings in defeat.

             

Ian Garry vs. Jordan Williams

You may not have heard of Ireland's Ian Garry (7-0) before, but expect that to change soon. 

The unbeaten 23-year-old, who recently held the Cage Warriors welterweight title, will make his UFC debut against Jordan Williams (9-5) on the UFC 268 undercard.

Garry has been compared to the likes of Conor McGregor for years, and the hype couldn't be higher as his UFC debut draws closer. 

"One of the most hyped prospects since James Gallagher and Conor McGregor before him," Irish MMA journalist Peter Carroll wrote of Garry on Twitter.

The only question is, can Williams, with eight finishes among his nine victories, knock the Garry hype train off the rails before it leaves the station?