UFC 272

With a title shot out of reach, Colby Covington's options for the time being seem to suggest he'll follow a familiar pattern.

A mere athletic contest might not satisfy the enmity of Masvidal. But this gritty game is elevated to something nobler when two combatants who've been beating the crap out of each other for half an hour hear the final horn, end the violence and hug out of respect. And what we saw at the end of the night between Covington and Masvidal was anything but that. At the end of UFC 272, Covington tried to continue the ugly narrative. Nowhere is the combativeness as feisty as it is in the fight business. The callout may seem a bit surprising, but what else is there for Covington to do? And the bout was not even an eliminator to establish the winner as a title challenger. If Usman remains at the top of Mount Welterweight, it's going to be a long road back up that mountain for Covington. Anyone who suspected that maybe, just maybe, the two old roommates had ginned up a friendship-gone-bad angle just to sell pay-per-views was mistaken. The ending was anticlimactic for a fight in which both men promised unabated violence. As athletic commission officials raced into the Octagon to ensure that fisticuffs were done for the night, the fighters yapped at each other from a distance. And for a brief moment in Round 4, when Masvidal stung Covington with a punch and sent him stumbling toward the ground, the fight felt like it might turn into a striking match. Everyone just slid a little closer to the edge of their seats, if sitting was even an option for fans who had been waiting with rapt anticipation for this grudge match.

A rare non-title fight headlined Saturday night's UFC 272, as a welterweight grudge match between former training partners headlined the card at T-Mobile ...

Dos Anjos noticeably took his foot off the gas pedal in the fifth and cruised to seal his 20th career UFC win. With his left eye nearly swollen shut between rounds, the ringside doctor examined him and inexplicably cleared him to continue. But once it got started, the traffic went one way --Covington dominated the bout en route to a unanimous decision on the scorecards: 49-46, 50-44 and 50-45.

Renato Moicano isn't making any excuses after a short-notice loss to Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 272.

And I’m not a winner when I win. I’m not a loser, because I lost. I’m not a loser, because I lost.

With a win over his rival Jorge Masvidal, is Colby Covington poised another shot at the welterweight crown? Plus, Kevin Holland seems like he's found a home ...

Did he deserve to be in the UFC that early in his career? Rodriguez had a solid showing Saturday. It was good enough to get the win. Raimondi: Rodriguez is one of the best women's strawweight fighters in the world. Did he deserve an opportunity to be in professional sports -- period -- given some of the details of his past? A freak athlete, obviously, who looked comfortable in a fist fight from the very beginning. Holland needs to remember that whatever edge in strength he might bring down from 185 pounds, he loses some of the speed advantage he was used to. Dos Anjos was planning on fighting Islam Makhachev, but that fight failed to come to fruition for the third time. This is a legit win against a very dangerous featherweight, with a ton of experience fighting at the highest level. If Evloev wins, you're talking about a matchup between, potentially, two of the very best grapplers in the division. If he can't win the championship right now, the next best thing is to build his name and become a legit pay-per-view draw. He could raise the profile of a potential title challenger. He's on the last fight of his UFC deal.

Covington relied on his wrestling mastery to control the fight over 25 minutes of action in Las Vegas.

Moicano 10-9 (49-44 overall for dos Anjos) That friendship dissolved, leading to one of the most bitter main event match-ups in UFC history. Masvidal made his way to the feet with 30-seconds left but ate a big elbow on the clinch break. Round 2: Covington and Masvidal had measured exchanges on the feet. Masvidal made it to his feet in the closing seconds of the round. Covington managed to recover, returning fire and making it to the end of the round. 10-9 Covington (49-46 overall for Covington) Masvidal managed to roll with the punches and rocked Covington at approximately the 3:30 mark. Covington sucked the drama out of the final round by blitzing forward and taking Masvidal down. Subscribe to Morning Kombat with Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell for the best analysis and in-depth news, including instant analysis to UFC 272 at the conclusion of the event below. That set up the round for Covington to dominate nearly every second of the five-minute frame with ground and pound. Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal were once close friends before their relationship soured and the pair spent years trading barbs in interviews.

He didn't get the victory at UFC 272, but Renato Moicano may have earned some new fans for the heart displayed.

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