Colby Covington’s painfully awkward run-in with Kamaru Usman

Over the weekend, one week on from UFC312 at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena, the UFC’s rigorous live event schedule continued back in the United States for a Fight Night headlined by middleweights Jared Cannonier and Gregory Rodrigues.

UFC Fight Night: Cannonier v Rodrigues was the UFC’s 109^th overall event at the APEX venue since the first back in May of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has included 102 fight nights and nine pay-per-view cards.

Whilst it was the action inside the Octagon that stole the show, including Jared ‘Tha Killa Gorrilla’s extremely impressive fourth-round TKO win over Brazilian Gregory Rodrigues, who had both Gilbert Burns and Vincente Luque in his corner, it was an awkward moment between former rivals Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman during the show that has also gone viral.

Both men were in Las Vegas over the weekend for different reasons. Colby is currently working as part of Chael Sonnen’s coaching team for The Ultimate Fighter 33, whilst Kamaru was working the live event as a post-show analyst for ESPN, alongside Karyn Bryant, Din Thomas, and fellow UFC welterweight Michael Chiesa.  

A brief exchange between the two welterweights took place during the event, whilst Colby was backstage and live streaming for his twitch account ‘colbychaostv’, when he noticed Kamaru Usman nearby.

It was as Kamaru walked closer, that Colby acknowledged the former undisputed UFC welterweight champion in a friendly manner, greeting him casually and asking “What’s up buddy, how are you doing man? Good to see you” whilst offering a handshake.

Kamaru however, who had his hands full with a plate of food in one and a bottle of water in the other and was clearly walking through the room to get elsewhere, seemed less interested in stopping to say hello and talk, with Colby letting him know he was currently live streaming.

After Kamaru had walked by, Colby asked his videographer “did you get that” straight away and followed up by saying to those watching his live stream, “Yes that was Usman guys, he just said to me hey man we are going to talk in a little bit.”

After looking at the comments coming through in his twitch stream’s live chat, Colby then went on to say, “We’ll definitely chop it up a little bit, maybe we’ll get a picture, or maybe we’ll just fight, you never know when ‘Chaos’ is in the building it’s unpredictable”.

This awkward exchange won’t be surprising for many, with Colby and Kamaru having an intense rivalry a few years back in the lead up to both of their championship fights against each other, in December 2019, and then again nearly two years later in November 2021.

Whilst a trilogy seems unlikely, given Usman’s two-nil record over Covington, and his desire to fight for the welterweight championship again, Colby didn’t rule it out by saying “no hard feelings, you know I said my truth, we duked it out and maybe we’ll duke it out again, whatever the fans want”.

Colby, aged 36, has had current United States President Donald Trump attend his fights in recent years and is currently ranked 9^th in the official UFC welterweight rankings, having most recently lost to Joaquim Buckley in December last year due to a cut above his eye resulting in a doctor stoppage.

Kamaru, aged 37, who made 5 successful defences of his welterweight championship between 2019 and 2021, has not entered the Octagon in over a year. Usman most recently lost to current middleweight number one contender Khamzat Chimaev in his own middleweight debut back in October of 2023.