Champions Rose Namajunas, Kamaru Usman retain belts at UFC 268

NEW YORK — Rose Namajunas needed to triumph the last circular to support the women’s strawweight rubric successful the co-main lawsuit of UFC 268 astatine Madison Square Garden connected Saturday night.

She responded with her champion 5 minutes of the fight.

Namajunas took Zhang Weili down aboriginal successful the circular and controlled her connected the mat to the last doorbell to unafraid a split-decision victory.

“I was beauteous assured successful the extremity that I had won it,” She said. “The archetypal mates rounds were a small close, but I was conscionable surviving successful the moment. I wasn’t adjacent excessively disquieted astir the result.”

In the main event, welterweight champion Kamaru Usman besides retained his loop successful a rematch erstwhile helium improved to 2-0 against Colby Covington with a unanimous-decision victory.

Usman astir ended the combat astatine the extremity of the 2nd circular erstwhile helium dropped Covington with 2 near hands, but ran retired of time.

Covington rallied precocious aft a dilatory start, but it wasn’t enough.

Usman antecedently knocked retired Covington successful the 5th circular of a December 2019 rubric bout. He has present won 19 consecutive fights, including 15 successful the UFC. It was his 5th consecutive palmy rubric defense.

The triumph for Namajunas was dramatically antithetic from her archetypal gathering with Weili erstwhile she ended Weili’s 20-fight winning streak and her rubric reign backmost successful April with a caput footwear knockout conscionable 78 seconds into the archetypal round.

Weili switched her grooming to a wrestling-heavy campy successful Arizona and enactment a caller gameplan into enactment connected Saturday nighttime with respective aboriginal takedowns.

Namajunas rallied to triumph the last 2 rounds convincingly.

“I had a feeling it was going to beryllium a mode antithetic combat and she improved a lot,” Namajunas said. “I springiness her props. I cognize what I person to enactment on.”

Weili was capable to people takedowns successful each of the archetypal 2 rounds, past got 1 precocious successful a 3rd circular successful which Namajunas had looked strong.

In the end, the challenger wasn’t capable to bash capable erstwhile successful power of the presumption to clasp her title.

One justice gave Weili each of the archetypal 3 rounds. Another gave her conscionable the first.

The plaything paper proved decisive arsenic Doug Crosby gave Weili the archetypal and 3rd rounds connected his card.

“Everyone saw maine fall,” she said. “I privation to spot everyone spot maine basal up. I privation to beryllium an inspiration for everyone that has been done adversity and flooded them. I’m atrocious I didn’t bash that tonight.”

A lightweight conflict betwixt apical contender Justin Gaethje and erstwhile champion Michael Chandler that had been billed arsenic a imaginable combat of the twelvemonth campaigner lived up to the hype.

The combat received a lasting ovation from the sold-out assemblage astatine the extremity of each 3 rounds arsenic they exchanged haymakers for 15 minutes.

Gaethje scored a knockdown that astir ended the combat successful the 2nd circular and was yet awarded the decision.

“I knew precisely what that (expletive) was,” Gaethje said. “He’s a warrior. We are surviving successful the incorrect times. Me and him should person been warring to the decease successful the (expletive) Colosseum.”

Gaethje believes his adjacent combat volition beryllium for a title.

“I’m ranked No.2 and I conscionable got an awesome win,” helium said of whether helium deserved the shot. “Of course, who else?”

Also connected the main card, bantamweight Marlon Vera landed a beforehand footwear close down the mediate connected the chin of Frankie Edgar to people a knockout precocious successful the 3rd and last round.

Kickboxing prima Alex Pereira highlighted the preliminary paper with a jumping genu knockout of middleweight Andreas Michailidis.

Contact Adam Hill astatine ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ connected Twitter.