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Colby Covington: Kamaru Usman accepted rematch because UFC threatened to strip him

Colby Covington says Kamaru Usman was given two options ahead of their fight at UFC 268: either accept the rematch or be stripped of the welterweight championship.

Usman and Covington were involved in a ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate almost two years ago at UFC 245, where ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ stopped ‘Chaos’ via fifth-round technical knockout. Covington was enraged by how referee Marc Goddard dealt with the stoppage, believed it was premature and said he was “robbed” of a fair fight. He also alleged that Goddard was biased against him and cited two incidents — a low blow and an eye poke — during the fight that were supposedly mishandled to favor Usman.