Leon Edwards Defeats Colby Covington at UFC 296 to Retain Welterweight Championship

Leon Edwards successfully retained the UFC welterweight championship with a unanimous decision win over Colby Covington in the main event of UFC 296 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The first surprise of the fight came at the start. The usually ultra-aggressive Covington allowed Edwards to take the lead in the opening round, stalking down the challenger as Covington circled.

Many noted the unusually cautious start:

Rocky's kickboxing acumen was on display. He stood at range and picked apart Coving early on the feet, chipping away at his legs and body with kicks.

Covington showed some signs of life in the third round. He shot for a takedown and briefly had Edwards on the ground, but when the champion responded by getting up and scoring a takedown of his own, the momentum died.

Covington had a few more moments in the fourth round. But Edwards was still able to work out of situations, do some damage and control the fight. Analysts were surprised at just easy Edwards made it look against an uninspiring Covington.

The early leg kicks were clearly a part of Edwards' game plan and they paid big dividends late in the fight with visible damage to the legs.

Edwards has now successfully defended the belt twice and started to carve out his own legacy as champion apart from Kamaru Usman. Edwards won the belt by knocking The Nigerian Nightmare out and confirming his championship status with a split-decision win over Usman in the rematch.

For years, Edwards was the contender quietly putting together a win streak. He hasn't lost since 2015 when Usman beat him by unanimous decision.

Now he's a champion with an 11-fight win streak. The only bout that didn't go Edwards' way was a No Contest against Belal Muhammad when an accidental eye poke left Muhammad unable to continue.

There's a good chance we haven't seen the last fight between those two, though. Muhammad has done nothing but win since that fateful night. He's picked up five wins since that fight, extending his own winning streak to nine.

Edwards is ready for that challenge, but also acknowledged that Muhammad could have someone else skip ahead of him. After all Covington cut to the front of the line after being away for nearly two years.

"If I have to fight Belal, I'll fight Belal," Edwards said, per Farah Hannoun and Ken Hathaway of MMA Junkie. "I feel like I've proven I'm way better than him anyway just from that one round. If he's next, I'll happily engage it and it's fine. I believe I'm going to fight them all anyway, so why not fight them all as a champion?"

Whether it's Muhammad or someone like Shavkat Rakhmonov who beat Stephen Thompson via second-round submission on the UFC 296 main card, Edwards is continuing to prove he's the best welterweight in the world.