UFC 272 results, highlights: Colby Covington grinds down win over Jorge Masvidal to end rivalry

Colby Covington and George Masvidal were good friends before their relationship soured and the pair spent years exchanging barbs in interviews. On Saturday night, the pair met in the main event of UFC 272 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with Covington working his way to a broad collective decision winning scores of 49-46, 50-44 and 50-45.

Masvidal opened the fight with a wild air strike, but both men quickly slowed down to a more tactical approach before Masvidal dropped leg kicks that seemed to annoy Covington, triggering a takedown attack as Masvidal complained of a tingling in his eye.

While Masvidal continued to fight the takedown attempts, Covington slowly worked to keep dragging him down, eventually getting his back and working into dominant positions. Masvidal had a more positive trend in the second round, landing some solid kicks and opening a chop near Covington’s eye with a sharp elbow. Meanwhile, Covington remained committed to a flailing attack, using his shot to come close from distance in pursuit of wins.

The takedown came much easier for Covington in the third round, as she planted Masvidal along the cage with a double leg. This set up a round for Covington to dominate nearly every second of the five-minute frame with ground and pounds. Covington’s work in Round 3 moved into the first part of Round 4, clearly draining Masvidal’s energy.

However, Masvidal landed with a crushing right hand that caused Covington to stumble backwards and leave his knee briefly.

Unfortunately for Masvidal, he didn’t have the gas left in the tank to follow after scoring the biggest single shot in the fight and Covington was able to recover before the round was over.

Can’t get enough of boxing and mixed martial arts? Get the latest in combat sports from two of the best sports in the business. Subscribe to Morning Kombat with Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell For the best in-depth analysis and news, including the immediate analysis of UFC 272 at the conclusion of the event below.

Covington sucked the drama out of the final round with a forward blitz and taking down Masvidal. Once he grabbed Masvidal’s body, Covington didn’t let go, choking off every attempt Masvidal made to get the fight back to his feet and simply grinding seconds to get to the scorecards.

It wasn’t the sure end many would like to see from such a grudge match, and after reading the scorecards, a frustrated Masvidal was forced to admit that his wrestling “wasn’t feeling well”.

Covington declined to discuss the fight in his brief post-fight interview. Instead, he turned his attention to a desirable grudge match. Knowing that, like Masvidal, he had already suffered two losses to current welterweight champ Kamaru Usman, Covington called out an interim lightweight champ.

“I just took care of the Miami Street litter, now is the time to take care of the Louisiana swamp litter,” Covington said. “Where are you, Dustin Poirier? I said it’s nearby. The name of the location, Dustin…You’re next.”

Elsewhere on the card, Rafael dos Anjos rounded up Renato Moikano to five hard-fought rounds despite a late crowd in Moicano’s fifth round. Dos Anjos hit the Brazilian teammate so badly that a doctor was called twice to check Moikano’s eye before allowing the fight to continue. In addition, Bryce Mitchell dominated Edson Barboza over the course of 15 minutes to claim his biggest featherweight win yet.

CBS Sports was with you all the way on Saturday bringing you all the results and highlights from UFC 272 below.

UFC 272 Card and Results

• Colby Covington defeated. Jorge Masvidal by unanimous decision (49-46, 50-44, 50-45)
• Rafael dos Anjos vs Renato Moikano By unanimous decision (49-45, 49-44, 50-44)
• Bryce Mitchell Dave. Edson Barbosa by unanimous decision (30-25, 30-26, 30-27)
• Kevin Holland def. Alex Oliveira via TKO, second round (punches)
• Sergey Spivak defeated. Greg Hardy via TKO first round (punches)
• Galen Turner defeated. Jimmy Mullarkey via TKO in the second round (punches)
• Defeated Marina Rodriguez. Yan Xiaonan via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Nikolai Negomerino Def. Kennedy Nzechukwu via split decision (29-27, 27-29, 29-27)
• Marina Moroz def. Maria Ajapova By rendering the second round (head and arm throttle)
• Omar Nurmagomedov. Brian Kelleher via first round submission (naked rear throttle)
• Tim Elliot Dave. Tajir Ulanbekov by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Ludovitt Klein defeated. Defont Smith via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Dustin Jacoby defeated. Michal Oleksiejczuk by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)