NEW YORK -- A pound-for-pound No. 1 fighter steps into the cage with the second-best fighter in his weight class and makes him look second rate. That was the narrative early on in the UFC 268 main event, as welterweight champion Kamaru Usman bloodied Colby Covington in the first round and knocked him down twice in the second.
But then Covington did what an aspiring champion does. He dug deep and climbed back into the fight, and by the final round on Saturday he had Madison Square Garden rocking with a "Colby! Colby!" chant.