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The No.4 ranked Welterweight Leon Edwards revealed that negotiations for the Kamaru Usman-Colby Covington fight had stalled due to the latter asking for a lot of money. Had the fight fallen through, Usman vs Edwards would have been the direction.
However, that won't be the case anymore as Kamaru Usman vs Colby Convington is a 'done deal', according to Ariel Helwani of ESPN and it will be one of the three featured title bouts in UFC 245.
Why did it take so long to happen?
After a tweet from Ariel Helwani, ESPN confirmed that Usman vs Covington is a done deal.
Colby Covington was the deserving contender since he won the interim UFC Welterweight Championship. However, he wasn't able to come to terms with a fight against previous champion Tyron Woodley and ended up losing the shot to Kamaru Usman - who stepped up to the plate and dominated Woodley in a way that nobody had seen before.
As for Colby Covington, he sat out for quite some time before returning to defeat former champion Robbie Lawler in dominant fashion. As a result, he only further cemented his place as the No. 1 contender and after long negotiations, the fight will be official.
UFC 245 will take place on December 18th, 2019 and will feature three title bouts. The expected headliner is Max Holloway vs Alexander Volkanovski, while Amanda Nunes will have the fifth title defense of her career as she takes on former Featherweight Champion Germaine De Randemie in a rematch from six years ago.
The bout between Usman and Covington will complete a trio of fights in what is expected to be an extremely interesting card. The reason why UFC has stacked this card with three title fights is probably that, at UFC 244, there will be no title fights whatsoever.
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