It appears the UFC is finally “closing in” on making Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington a lock for their year-end pay-per-view.
The UFC tried booking a welterweight title bout between champion Usman and Covington to headline UFC 244 on Nov. 2. Negotiations fell through as Covington wasn’t pleased with his offer. When the UFC tried booking Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal, that didn’t materialize either. Ultimately, Masvidal vs. Nate Diaz will be the main event of UFC 244.
Covington later told BJPENN Radio that the UFC was doing “slave labor negotiations.”
“That’s how UFC does business, they do the bully tactics,” he said. “They do the slave labor negotiations. It’s sick man. They don’t want to pay any of the fighters because they want everybody to be poor, so they keep back coming back and fighting all the time, and fighting six times a year.”
Usman vs. Covington Close To Being A Done Deal
Ariel Helwani took to his The MMA Reporters podcast to provide a major update. Helwani said that Usman vs. Covington is close to being booked for UFC 245 (via Aaron Bronsteter).
“Per [Ariel Helwani] on The MMA Reporters podcast, the UFC are closing in on booking Kamaru Usman vs Colby Covington for UFC 245. It would be one of three title bouts on the card.”
UFC 245 will be the UFC’s year-end PPV. It’ll be held inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Dec. 14. The card already has two title bouts as Amanda Nunes puts her bantamweight gold on the line against Germaine de Randamie and Max Holloway defends his featherweight title against Alex Volkanovski.
