For the final time in 2023, the men and women of the UFC stepped into the Octagon and delivered a show, with the preliminary card matchups getting everyone hyped before an entertaining main card brought the year to a close
We had a Knockout of the Year contender, a Fight of the Year candidate, and a pair quality championship performances to wrap things up.
It’s been an outstanding year and this was a great way to close it out.
Welterweight champion Leon Edwards, who is now 22-3 overall and unbeaten in his past 13 fights, easily defended his title belt against No. 3-ranked Colby Covington in the main event. "Chaos" is now 1-3 in title fights, with two losses to former champion Kamaru Usman and a win over Rafael dos Anjos in June 2018 for the interim welterweight title, which he was later stripped of due to injury.
In the co-main event, champion Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Royval went the distance with Pantoja coming out on top. The Brazilian retained his title via unanimous decision with a dominant outing and now has the second most wins in the UFC's flyweight division with 11.
Edwards moved forward with precision, picking apart the challenger with hooks to the head and kicks to the body and legs. Covington, who averages more than four takedowns per 15 minutes, only shot three takedowns by the end of Round 3. Covington managed one successful takedown in Round 3, but Edwards promptly got up, stunned Covington with a head kick and took down the challenger to prove a point.
Covington looked more alive in the later rounds, particularly when Edwards willingly engaged in his opponent's fieldhouse. Covington and Edwards each scored one takedown in Round 5 with Covington closing the fight on top after slipping out of the champ's submission attempts. All three scorecards read 49-46 in Edwards' favor.
Featherweights Josh Emmett and Bryce Mitchell opened the pay-per-view card in a short-notice fight after Emmett's original opponent, Giga Chikadze, injured his groin in training and was forced to withdraw. The fight lasted less than two minutes as Emmett landed an epic overhand right that instantly knocked out Mitchell, who was seen going into convulsions after the finish.
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