KAMARU USMAN WILL be the man standing across the octagon from Tyron Woodley when the latter puts the UFC welterweight belt on the line for the fifth time.
Woodley (19-3-1) will defend his 170-pound title against Usman (14-1) at UFC 235 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, 2 March.
Usman, who’s ranked second in the welterweight division, has been handed the title shot at the expense of top contender Colby Covington.
After defeating Rafael dos Anjos last June to win an interim title, Covington was the front-runner to be Woodley’s next opponent. However, the 30-year-old Californian has now been overtaken in the race to dethrone the man who has been at the summit of the division since his first-round knockout of Robbie Lawler in July 2016.
According to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani: “The UFC chose Usman in large part because of its frustration over the fact that Covington refused to fight anyone else while Woodley was recovering from hand surgery.”
Covington and Usman have each defeated both Rafael dos Anjos and Demian Maia in their most recent outings. Usman, an accomplished American-based wrestler who was born in Nigeria, has put together a 9-0 record under the umbrella of the UFC.
Earlier this week, a frustrated Covington hit out at the UFC: “They made promises that I was going to fight Tyron Woodley in November at Madison Square Garden. They made promises I was going to fight him in January in California.
“Now all of a sudden I’m getting passed up for a guy behind me that has beaten my sloppy seconds? It makes no sense to me. They are shitting on me, they are shitting on their fans, they are dulling their product.”
He added: “I don’t need the UFC, the UFC needs me. Unless they are calling me for a title shot, I have nothing to say to them. If they want to release me, release me. I’m going to wait to get what I deserved. That’s a title fight.”
Woodley will be returning to action for the first time since his second-round submission of Darren Till in September. His meeting with Usman has been pencilled in as the penultimate bout of the night at UFC 235, which is expected to be headlined by a light-heavyweight title defence for Jon Jones against Anthony Smith.
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