All the bad blood boiling over didn't throw Colby Covington off his game plan.
Covington used his superior wrestling toward a dominant unanimous decision victory over his former friend, turned bitter enemy Jorge Masvidal at UFC 272 on Saturday night. Judges at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas scored it 49-46, 50-44, and 50-45, all in favor of Covington, who especially savored having his hand raised in the grudge match.
"Chaos" also didn't waste time spewing venom toward his desired next opponent — Dustin Poirier.
"I just took care of Miami street trash," Covington told Joe Rogan, "now it's time to take care of Louisiana swamp trash."
Covington asserted his wrestling during the opening round, taking Masvidal down and attempting a rear-naked choke. When Masvidal rebounded nicely with a better second round, Covington went right back to his wrestling by changing levels and taking Masvidal down again, grappling and sapping "Gamebred's" energy.
Masvidal made the fourth round particularly intriguing when he landed a devastating right hand across the jaw to drop Covington to his knees, but "Chaos" rebounded with more wrestling in the fifth and final round.
With Covington's six total takedowns came plenty of short punches to the head, ribs, and hard elbows across the face. All did damage to fatigue Masvidal, who was simply outmatched by Covington's exceptional wrestling.
"I was offbeat with the wrestling," Masvidal told Rogan after suffering a tough defeat to his rival. "I needed to wrestle harder. My wrestling wasn't there today. I was flat."
Following the final fight buzzer, security swarmed into the Octagon to prevent any post-fight fireworks as the two exchanged stinging words from across the cage.
With the win, Covington will remain the No. 1 ranked welterweight. However, considering that Covington lost to welterweight champion Kamaru Usman twice, the choice to call out Poirier instead makes sense.
Here's how the entire UFC 272 main card went.