The UFC is back in New York City as they return to Madison Square Garden with two title fight rematches as MMASucka provides UFC 268 results. Headlining UFC 268 will be a rematch for the welterweight title as Kamaru Usman looks to silence Colby Covington once again. These two first met in 2019 when they faced off in the main event of UFC 245 that December. Usman finished the fight in the final round that night, defeating Covington by TKO.
UFC 268 Results – Main Event
Since the win, Usman has defended his belt three more times. On the other hand, Covington has only made one appearance, picking up a unanimous decision win over former champion Tyron Woodley. That win occurred in September of 2020 and Covington has not fought since then. He hopes this time around will be different as he has a second chance to take the title away from Usman.
Usman’s second title defense was supposed to come against Gilbert Burns the summer following his bout with Covington. However, just over a week before the fight, Burns was forced out with COVID-19 and was replaced by Jorge Masvidal. Usman successfully defended his title on short notice against Masvidal, defeating him by unanimous decision. Usman’s matchup with Burns came after the Masvidal fight as they met the following February at UFC 258. Usman defended his title for a third time as he finished Burns in the third round by TKO. Finally, Usman’s most recent matchup was a rematch with Masvidal earlier this year at UFC 261. That time around, Usman finished Masvidal with a massive knockout in the second round.
UFC 268 Results – Co-Main Event
Saturday night’s co-main event features another title rematch, this time in the women’s strawweight division as former champion Weili Zhang looks to take the title back from Rose Namajunas. The pair’s first meeting took place the same night Usman defended against Masvidal for the second time, at UFC 261. Zhang hoped to defend the title for a second time after her successful defense against former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk in what was considered one of the best fights of 2020. Unfortunately for Zhang, Namajunas made quick work of her, finishing the fight in just over a minute to recapture the title she lost in 2019.
Prior to that fight, Zhang had not lost a fight since her first professional fight in 2013. She would then go on to win her next nineteen straight fights in order to earn a shot at the title. She faced off against the champion at that time, Jessica Andrade, and ended up finishing the fight and capturing the title in less than a minute. While Zhang was defending her title against Jedrzejczyk, Namajunas took part in a rematch against the woman she lost her title to, Andrade. In that fight, Namajunas defeated Andrade by split decision to earn her shot at Zhang. As each woman enters the fight, Zhang hopes to be able to extend the fight and show off more than she was able to the first time around while Namajunas looks for the second title defense of her second title stint.
UFC 268 Results – Gaethje vs. Chandler
Kicking off the main card will be a high stakes matchup in the lightweight division as the most recent man to compete for the belt, Michael Chandler, faces off against another former title challenger in Justin Gaethje.
Chandler spent most of his career with Bellator where he spent most of his career there as a contender or champion. After more than ten years with Bellator, Chandler made the jump to the UFC in 2020 after becoming a free agent. His debut was earlier this year when he faced Dan Hooker at UFC 257. It only took Chandler half of the first round to finish Hooker by TKO and earn a shot at the vacant lightweight title against Charles Oliveira. In that fight, Chandler ended up losing in the second round as Oliveira finished the fight by TKO less than twenty seconds into that round.
As for Gaethje, he has not fought since his title fight against the former champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 254. Leading up to that fight, Gaethje had won four straight fights to earn himself a shot at the champion. All four of those fights were finished by KO/TKO as he picked up wins over James Vick, Edson Barboza, Donald Cerrone and Tony Ferguson. In his fight against Nurmagomedov, Gaethje ended up losing the fight as he was finished with a triangle choke in the second round. Now, with Nurmagomedov out as champion, Gaethje looks to earn another title shot, this time against Oliveira, with a win over Chandler. As for Chandler, a win could gift him a title shot but with a loss to Oliveira already, it’s possible he could need one more win; maybe in a fight against Islam Makhachev.
UFC 268 Results – Main Card
Following the lightweight fight between Gaethje and Chandler will be a featherweight fight between Shane Burgos and Billy Quarantillo. Burgos will be looking to snap a two fight losing streak as he steps into his fight against Quarantillo. Over that stretch, Burgos dropped a unanimous decision to Josh Emmett and was finished by KO against Edson Barboza in his most recent fight. Quarantillo will be entering the fight with a 1-1 record in his last two outings. After dropping losing by UD to Gavin Tucker last December, Quarantillo went on to finish Gabriel Benitez by TKO in his most recent fight at UFC Vegas 31.
Finally, the final non-title fight on the main card will feature a bantamweight matchup between former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and Marlon Vera. Edgar made the move down to bantamweight last summer when he defeated Pedro Munhoz by split decision. In his next outing at 135 pounds, Edgar would lose to Cory Sandhagen by first round knockout.
Edgar looks to get back on trap with a win over Vera as Vera enters the contest with a 1-1 record in his last two fights. The first of those was against former featherweight champion Jose Aldo as Vera welcomed him to the bantamweight division. Unfortunately for Vera, he would end up losing the fight by unanimous decision. In his most recent outing, Vera bounced back with a unanimous decision win over Davey Grant. Vera looks to pick up the biggest win of his career on Saturday if he can get past former champion Frankie Edgar. Meanwhile Edgar looks to bounce back from the loss to Sandhagen with a win over Vera.
UFC 268 Results
Follow along with MMASucka as we provide you with UFC 268 Results throughout the card.
Main Card (ESPN+/PPV – 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT)
Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington
Rose Namajunas vs. Weili Zhang
Frankie Edgar vs. Marlon Vera
Shane Burgos vs. Billy Quarantillo
Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Chandler
Preliminary Card (ESPNews – 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT)
Alex Pereira vs. Andreas Michailidis
Al Iaquinta vs. Bobby Green
Phillip Hawes vs. Chris Curtis
Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Nassourdine Imavov
Ian Garry vs. Jordan Williams
Early Preliminary Card (ESPN+/UFC Fight Pass – 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT)
Gian Villante vs. Chris Barnett
Dustin Jacoby vs. John Allan
Melsik Baghdasaryan vs. Bruno Souza*
CJ Vergara** vs. Ode’ Osbourne
*Souza missed weight at 148.4 pounds and will forfeit 20% of his purse
**Vergara missed weight at 127.4 pounds and will forfeit 20% of his purse
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