On Saturday night, Kamaru Usman defended his welterweight championship belt against fierce rival Colby Covington for the second time, and potentially put an end to the feud between the two.After five rounds, Usman came away with a unanimous decision victory, with the judges scoring it 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 in favour of the current champion.But the bad blood has been boiling between these two for almost two years now, with their first encounter coming at UFC 245 in December 2019.The Nigerian Nightmare stopped the number one ranked challenger Covington in the fifth round back then, in what was his first defence of the welterweight belt.Since then, the rivalry has developed into the most intense and personal conflicts out of the current UFC roster - with Covington regularly sending verbal shots at his opponent in the media.The pre-fight press conference between the two showed all of that. Covington brought up Usman’s family troubles and threw doping allegations towards the champion, while Usman made reference to their previous encounter and even instigated an on-stage scuffle when they faced-off.With all this said, after the weeks of back and forth between the two, incredibly it seemed they showed each other some mutual respect come the end of the fight.
A clip from Saturday night has gone viral showing a conversation between the two once the final bell rang.
Covington walks up to Usman and says: “You know I’m trying to sell it for you. Get your money, it’s all love.”
The champion looks visibly shocked and seems to say “respect” back to his counterpart.
Speaking at the post-fight press conference, Usman refused to share the details of the conversation between the two.
“Two competitors. We went to war, and we’ve spent almost an hour together inside that cage.
“I’ll leave that between me and him.”
In his own post-fight interview, Covington did claim that he will see him again, stating: "I’m not done with him.”
However, he turned his attention to “street Judas Masvidal” and claimed that that’s the fight to make for him right now.