It took every bit of poise for Leon Edwards to not allow his anger to get the best of him after Colby Covington evoked Edwards' late father in a disparaging comment earlier in the week.
Well, Edwards used that personal attack as fuel to power his way toward a dominating unanimous decision victory over Covington in the headliner of UFC 296 on Saturday night. Judges inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas all scored it 49-46 in favor of Edwards, who outclassed Covington on the feet and even on the ground at times with two takedowns to stick it to the loudmouth American. DAZN scored it an identical 49-46 for Edwards.
"This fight was very emotional for me," a victorious Edwards told Joe Rogan in the Octagon. "This guy used my dad's death as entertainment, he used my dad's murder as entertainment. It took a lot for me to calm down, stay focused and come win this fight."
From the first two rounds, Edwards dictated the pace with a deliberate, measured fight using precise striking to split Covington's guard upstairs and badly beat up his lead leg with leg kicks. The third round had Edwards escaping harm's way to blast Covington with a head kick, before taking the American down as a stinging message to the wrestler.
Edwards made sure to pepper Covington with a right hand in the fourth round and a front kick right up the middle to his midsection.
While Covington scored a big takedown in the fifth and final round and was on top of Edwards as the bout ended by that time, "Rocky" had built a generous lead with his stronger striking and the judges saw it like that, too. Covington wasn't able to use the frenetic pace he's known for due to Edwards' measured striking.
Here's how the entire UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington pay-per-view main card went.