Daniel Cormier expected more from Leon Edwards and Colby Covington at UFC 296.
Welterweight champion Edwards (22-3 MMA, 14-2 UFC) retained his title in a lackluster unanimous decision win over Covington (17-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) in this past Saturday’s main event at T-Mobile Arena.
Considering their build-up during fight week, which included them being separated at the face-offs, Cormier thinks Edwards’ fight with Covington failed to deliver.
“If I’m being completely honest, while it was a completely dominant performance by the champion, I feel like it left me wanting a little more,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “Because generally, when we have these grudge-match type of fights, we have really fun, exciting, all-action fights and then we have a little bit of stuff afterwards.
“I think Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, I think Brock Lesnar when he told Frank Mir he’s going to shove something up his ass. Obviously (Jon) Jones and I never ended well. Jones-Rashad (Evans), Conor (McGregor)-Khabib (Nurmagomedov), all those fights that have bad blood, usually they’re very fun fights. There’s a little more to it, and we didn’t really get that.”
Cormier doesn’t put the blame on Edwards. He thinks it’s Covington who uncharacteristically looked hesitant and showed no sense of urgency, instead of applying his usual pressure.
“We got a very dominant performance, and guess what? It wasn’t Leon’s fault,” Cormier said. “He, as the champion, came out and fought a very typical Leon Edwards fight – a fight where he’s in control and he makes you fight his fight at his pace.
“The only way this fight was going to be fun is if Colby Covington put on that pace that he was so known for. He didn’t do that. He did not do that in his approach to trying to become a champion again, and then he opens himself up to a lot of criticism from people.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 296.
