“Everybody knows this is my second title defense,” said Covington, the former interim champion who brought his own UFC title belt to the festivities. “My last title defense was against the most dangerous guy in the division, Robbie Lawler, and you saw what I did on his face. I landed a strike record on his face and that’s a guy I liked. Wait until you see what I do to this clown.
“Dana will see December 14 who the face of the UFC is,” he added. “He recognizes business and he knows I do good business, so he will see December 14 why Marty Fake Newsman is irrelevant right now.
“The only reason he’s relevant is because he attaches his name to mine and December 14, only on pay-per-view, I’m detaching this clown from my coattails.”
“All I’m waiting for is December 14, when you guys finally get the fight that you’ve been waiting for for so long,” Usman said when asked about Covington’s antics.
Competitively, it’s a tremendously compelling fight, as both champion and challenger deploy a pressure-based attack with relentless grappling as their foundation and reached this point by facing and defeating two of the same opponents, Demian Maia and Rafael Dos Anjos.