Kamaru “The Nigerian Nightmare” Usman, 32, successfully defended his title as the reigning champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s welterweight division against Colby Covington, 31, of Fort Lauderdale at “UFC 245” on December 14, 2019. Both mixed martial artists are fighting out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States.
Featuring 13 MMA fights, the UFC held “UFC 245” at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The main event of the evening was the title bout between Usman and Covington.
Marc Goddard served as the referee of the title bout. He put a stop to the welterweight contest after 4 minutes and 10 seconds in the fifth round when Usman knocked out Covington via punches, which was the third latest finish in the history of the UFC.
The latest was 4:59 in the fifth round by Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, 33, of the U.S. over Kyoji “The Supernova” Horiguchi, 29, of Japan at “UFC 186” in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and by Yair “El Pantera” Rodriguez, 27, of Mexico over “The Korean Zombie” Jung Chan Sung, 32, of South Korea at “UFC Fight Night 139” in Denver, Colorado, USA. These are followed by 4:56 in the fifth round by Frankie “The Answer” Edgar, 38, of the U.S. over Cub “Killer” Swanson, 36, of the U.S. and by Jairzinho “Bigi Boy” Rozenstruik, 31, of Suriname over Alistair “The Demolition Man” Overeem, 39, of the Netherlands at “UFC on ESPN 7” in Washington, D.C., USA.
Now riding an 11-bout winning streak, Usman has the second longest active win streaks in the UFC. The longest one is by Tony “El Cucuy” Ferguson, 35, of Ventura, California, USA and reigning UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov, 30, of Russia, who both are riding a 12-bout winning streak.
Born in Auchi, Nigeria on May 11, 1987, Usman was 8 years old when he and his family moved to U.S. As an MMA fighter, he has been competing professionally since 2012 and joined the UFC since 2015.
On March 2, 2019, Usman became the new UFC Welterweight Champion by dethroning then champion Tyron “The Chosen One” Woodley, 37, of the U.S. in the co-main event of “UFC 235” at the T-Mobile Arena. “UFC 245” marked the Nigerian-American fighter’s first successful title defense.
Including Woodley and Covington, Usman defeated all of his 12 opponents in the UFC from 2015 to 2019. The other 10 were Hayder “Hulk” Hassan, 37, and Sean “Tarzan” Strickland , 28, of the U.S..; Leon “Rocky” Edwards, 28, of England; Alexander “The Thunder of the North” Yakovlev, 35, of Russia; Warlley Alves, 28, Sergio “The Panther” Moraes, 37, Demian Maia, 42, and Rafael dos Anjos, 35, of Brazil and Emil “Valhalla” Meek, 31, of Norway.
Winning at “UFC 245” improved the professional MMA record of Usman to 16 wins and 1 loss. Covington now has 15 wins and 2 losses.
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