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History · 2021 · UFC 268: Usman vs. Covington 2 · Kamaru Usman vs Colby Covington
From the tape · 6 Nov 2021

Kamaru Usman vs Colby Covington

UFC 268: Usman vs. Covington 2 · New York City, New York, USA
Result

Kamaru Usman beat Colby Covington

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
5 of 5
Clock
5:00
Welterweight TitleTitle fightMainReferee · Dan Miragliotta

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

Red corner KamaruUsman“The Nigerian Nightmare”Kill Cliff FC · Born in Auchi, Edo, Nigeria · Fights out of Denver, Colorado, United States
VSOn the tape
Blue corner ColbyCovington“Chaos”MMA Masters · Born in Clovis, California, United States · Fights out of Miami, Florida, United States
Welterweight Title5 rounds6 Nov 2021At the time: Welterweight champion vs #1 · rankings of 2 November 2021
The story going in
  • Comes in on a 14-fight win streak.
  • Has finished 5 of 11 UFC wins.
  • Has finished 5 of 14 UFC wins.
  • Averages 1.0 more takedowns per 15 minutes than Usman.
21-5
Record
17-5
34
Age
−1 yr33
+1″6' 0"
Height
5' 11"
+4″76″
Reach
72″
Switch
Stance
Orthodox
+114
UFC bouts
13
5/1436% of wins
Finishes
+10%5/1145% of wins
Kill Cliff FC
Gym
MMA Masters
Auchi, Edo, Nigeria
Born in
Clovis, California, United States
Denver, Colorado, United States
Fights out of
Miami, Florida, United States
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Where a fighter was born and where they fight out of come from their Wikipedia entry; where we hold neither, the hometown shown is Sherdog’s. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

5 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Kamaru Usman17 sig landed
HEAD71%12 of 34BODY24%4 of 8LEGS6%1 of 1
Colby Covington13 sig landed
HEAD62%8 of 37BODY23%3 of 7LEGS15%2 of 3
17 of 43
Sig.
strikes
13 of 47
1 of 1
Take-
downs
0 of 1
0:22
Control
0:00
0
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 15Clinch 0Ground 2
Where it
happened
Distance 13Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Usman firstDerek Cleary10–9Sal D'Amato10–9Dave Tirelli10–9
Round 25:00 of action⚡ 2 KD Usman
Kamaru Usman36 sig landed
HEAD53%19 of 51BODY44%16 of 19LEGS3%1 of 1
Colby Covington19 sig landed
HEAD53%10 of 37BODY32%6 of 7LEGS16%3 of 3
36 of 71
Sig.
strikes
19 of 47
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 2
0:15
Control
0:41
2
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 26Clinch 2Ground 8
Where it
happened
Distance 17Clinch 2Ground 0
Judges · this round · Usman firstDerek Cleary10–9Sal D'Amato10–9Dave Tirelli10–9
Round 35:00 of action
Kamaru Usman23 sig landed
HEAD78%18 of 52BODY22%5 of 6LEGS0%0 landed
Colby Covington21 sig landed
HEAD71%15 of 48BODY29%6 of 8LEGS0%0 landed
23 of 58
Sig.
strikes
21 of 56
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 4
0:16
Control
0:05
0
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 22Clinch 1Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 20Clinch 1Ground 0
Judges · this round · Usman firstDerek Cleary10–9Sal D'Amato9–10Dave Tirelli10–9
Round 45:00 of action
Kamaru Usman23 sig landed
HEAD74%17 of 64BODY26%6 of 6LEGS0%0 landed
Colby Covington33 sig landed
HEAD85%28 of 71BODY15%5 of 6LEGS0%0 landed
23 of 70
Sig.
strikes
33 of 77
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 2
0:00
Control
0:25
0
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 22Clinch 1Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 31Clinch 2Ground 0
Judges · this round · Usman firstDerek Cleary9–10Sal D'Amato9–10Dave Tirelli9–10
Round 55:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Kamaru Usman24 sig landed
HEAD58%14 of 40BODY42%10 of 11LEGS0%0 landed
Colby Covington21 sig landed
HEAD86%18 of 49BODY14%3 of 5LEGS0%0 landed
24 of 51
Sig.
strikes
21 of 54
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 2
0:23
Control
0:43
0
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 22Clinch 2Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 20Clinch 1Ground 0
Judges · this round · Usman firstDerek Cleary10–9Sal D'Amato10–9Dave Tirelli9–10

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Unanimous Decision

Referee · Dan Miragliotta
Kamaru UsmanColby Covington
Official totals — Kamaru Usman first
JudgeTotal
Derek Cleary2.0 avg spread · 42% wide49–46
Sal D'Amato2.1 avg spread · 46% wide48–47
Dave Tirelli2.2 avg spread · 56% wide48–47

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 21 scored, Kamaru Usman first · unofficial

John Pollock POST Wrestling49–45
Joe McDonagh Cageside Press49–46
Shakiel Mahjouri Fightful.com48–46
Tristen Critchfield Sherdog.com48–46
Ben Duffy Sherdog.com48–46
Jay Pettry Sherdog.com48–46
MM AMania.com48–46
Jed Meshew MMAFighting.com48–46
Paul Fontaine WrestlingObserver.com48–46
Jillian DeCoursey48–46
Keith Shillan Sherdog.com48–46
Greg Rosenstein The Athletic48–46
Nick Baldwin theScore48–47
Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com48–47
Sheehan SevereMMA.com48–47
Sean Ross Sapp Fightful.com48–47
MM AJunkie.com48–47
Stephie Haynes BloodyElbow.com48–47
Tim Burke BloodyElbow.com47–47
Drake Riggs SCMP MMA47–47
Danny Segura MMAJunkie.com47–47

Fan vote · unofficial

48-47 Covington · 33%48-46 Usman · 14%48-47 Usman · 12%49-45 Usman · 5%

3,135 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Kamaru Usman

2.60takedowns / 15 min
2.60 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
3.64 / 15m
6.19 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
8.67 / 15m
42%
ACCURACY
42%
0.10 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.20 / 15m

Colby Covington

3.64takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (5.50 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked roster-wide

The market story

Where the price started and where it finished — the sportsbook consensus, with the vig removed. We captured no price series for this bout, so there is no chart to draw.

Kamaru Usmanclose only
no opening line on recordclose 71.3%
Colby Covingtonclose only
no opening line on recordclose 28.7%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

We hold the closing consensus for this bout but no opening line, so the strip marks the close alone: Kamaru Usman 71.3%, Colby Covington 28.7%, vig removed.

Show the numbers
CornerOpen (US)Close (US)Open %Close %Move
Kamaru Usman—-291—71.3%—
Colby Covington190234—28.7%—
Opening and closing moneylines from BestFightOdds (data/refs/bfo_fighter_moneylines.csv), one row per fighter per bout, de-vigged pairwise so the two corners sum to 100% · scraped 2026-06-10 · BestFightOdds has no fighter page scraped for Kamaru Usman, so that corner’s CLOSE is read from the opponent’s row, which names it explicitly. No opening line exists for that corner and none is shown.. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
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