Colby Covington vs Jorge Masvidal - UFC 272
- March 5th, 2022
- T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada
- Five round non-title welterweight fight
- The main card starts at 10 pm EST
Covington vs Masvidal odds
- Colby Covington - (-315)
- Jorge Masvidal - (+266)
In a rare occurrence in the mixed martial arts world, it's the less popular fighter who comes in as the favorite heading into a big grudge match in the UFC.
'Chaos' is currently the favorite with the best price of -315 with MyBookie Sports Betting, despite coming off a defeat in his only fight since 2020 when he was defeated by Kamaru Usman for the welterweight championship back in at UFC 268 in November.
'Gamebred' hasn't had the best time himself recently, however, suffering back-to-back defeats to Usman in his last two fights which were also both for the title at UFC 251 and then UFC 261 where he suffered the first knockout defeat of his career.
He is the best price of +266 with BetOnline Sports Betting currently, meaning you'd get $266 profit from a $100 bet.
Covington vs Masvidal preview
In four of the last five title fights that have taken place in the 170-pound division, these two fighters have been present in four of them as challengers.
While they were both beaten twice each by the champion, it shows the level that they are currently competing at and proves that these two men are in the prime of their career when they battle on March 5th.
Covington has only suffered defeat one other time in his entire career aside from when he fought Usman, with Warlley Alves submitting him back in 2015. Aside from that though, it's been all positives for him.
With a career record of 16-3, Covington has amassed four knockouts and four submission victories with eight decisions, as he has made a reputation out of weaponizing his cardio to completely dominate opponents for the large majority of fights.
Masvidal is a superstar who made his name as a street fighter alongside the legendary Kimbo Slice and after a whirlwind of a career, he recently found supreme popularity when he began knocking people into a different realm.
He earned a brilliant KO win over Darren Till in London back in 2019 to start the run, before knocking out Ben Askren in a record-breaking five seconds and then defeating Nate Diaz at UFC 242 in a non-title main event prior to defeats to Usman.
His professional record currently stands at 35-15, with 16 knockouts and two submission wins throughout his career.
It will be primary wrestler vs primary striker in this match-up, but the fact they trained together and were best friends for the best part of ten years makes this an extremely intriguing match-up to watch.
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Chaos will reign supreme
These two guys genuinely dislike each other and there is a personal beef there, but ultimately when they step into the cage with each other all of that goes to one side and strategy comes into play.
Covington is a world-class wrestler with some of the strongest grappling skills in the division, as well as the best cardio in the division and some decent striking too.
Masvidal is one of the more explosive strikers with genuine KO power and an excellent chin, while his wrestling and grappling skills have always been sufficient enough to prevent pure domination on the ground against anyone.
But the two times he fought grappling specialists such as Usman and Demian Maia he did struggle to get his striking game going to any sort of degree and ultimately fell to defeats. His cardio has never been an issue, going 25 minutes on six-days notice at UFC 251 is a testament to that but it's always hard when you're on the back foot.
Covington has proven in the past that he has also got a tremendous chin, battling through a broken jaw before eventually succumbing to the only KO loss of his career two rounds later.
His jab is much improved and his wrestling means that Masvidal could be wary of using his lethal body kick, although the southpaw and orthodox match-up will open that up for both fighters.
We're in a situation where both guys are trash talkers and have made defeat seem almost impossible, but someone has to lose.
Unfortunately for Masvidal, it's likely to be him. 'Chaos' is a much better wrestler and his pressure will force Masvidal to go backward, which is dangerous. It'll likely go the distance because neither man is particularly known for getting finishes, but back Colby to get his hand raised at the end of it all.
