Kamaru Usman successfully defended his UFC welterweight title by knocking out Colby Covington in the fifth round at main event of UFC 245 thus handing Colby his only second career loss.
The fight was a highly entertaining one and both fighters went back and forth at each other. In between third and fourth round, Covington told his corner that he had broken his jaw. Despite this, he showed full heart and continued fighting for two more rounds. Through round four, the judges had an extremely close scorecard (3-1 Usman, 3-1 Covington, and 2-2).
In round five, Kamaru Usman fought with a sense of urgency and dropped Covington twice and then ultimately the referee had to step in to stop the fight after Usman took repeated ground strikes.
Covington was not happy with the stoppage and later took to twitter and called Marc Goddard a fake referee.
Normally people do their fucking in the bedroom, not the octagon @marcgoddard_uk! I go in there to kill or be killed. You robbed me of that. You robbed the people of a fair fight. You should be ashamed of yourself. Fake nut shot. Fake eye poke. Fake stoppage. Fake ref. #ufc245
— Colby Covington (@ColbyCovMMA) December 15, 2019
“Normally people do their f*cking in the bedroom, not the octagon @marcgoddard_uk! I go in there to kill or be killed. You robbed me of that. You robbed the people of a fair fight. You should be ashamed of yourself. Fake nut shot. Fake eye poke. Fake stoppage. Fake ref. #ufc245” Covington tweeted.
There were many fighters who also believed that the stoppage was premature including the likes of Strikeforce champion Josh Thomson and UFC bantamweight contender Aljamain Sterling.
Colby was up 3-1 on one judges card and the other two had it tied going into the 5th 2-2. Bottom line, he lost the 5th but that stoppage was a bad stoppage in a title fight. He was hurt but not done fighting. Bottom line, good fight by both guys. Congrats to @USMAN84kg #andstill
— Josh Thomson (@THEREALPUNK) December 15, 2019
“Colby was up 3-1 on one judges card and the other two had it tied going into the 5th 2-2. Bottom line, he lost the 5th but that stoppage was a bad stoppage in a title fight. He was hurt but not done fighting. Bottom line, good fight by both guys. Congrats to @USMAN84kg #andstill”. Thompson tweeted.
Terrible stoppage!! #UFC245 That sucks! Colby was going to lose that 5th RD bad, and lose the fight, BUT that stoppage was not right. He was still “intelligently defending” himself, as per the rule book.
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) December 15, 2019
“Terrible stoppage!! #UFC245 That sucks! Colby was going to lose that 5th RD bad, and lose the fight, BUT that stoppage was not right. He was still “intelligently defending” himself, as per the rule book,” Sterling tweeted.
Referee Marc Goddard later took to Twitter to defend his decision to stop the fight.
Raw emotion & the highest of stakes, fighting is like nothing else on earth. I respect each & every person I stand between & I will give you all I’ve got. I am a human being. Thank you to all who understand what I have put into this game, that will never stop. God bless. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/QryagWadpi
— Marc Goddard (@marcgoddard_uk) December 15, 2019
“Raw emotion & the highest of stakes, fighting is like nothing else on earth. I respect each & every person I stand between & I will give you all I’ve got. I am a human being. Thank you to all who understand what I have put into this game, that will never stop. God bless,” Marc tweeted.
Do you guys think that the stoppage was premature?
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