UFC 296: What a Stinker

Bloody Elbow experts Zane Simon and Eddie Mercado break down all the action that happened at UFC 296 this past Saturday.

By: Stephie Haynes | 2 months
UFC 296: What a Stinker
LEON EDWARDS (21-3-0) of Erdington, birmingham, England (L) defeats COLBY COVINGTON (17-3-0) of Miami, Florida USA (R) by a unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46) during UFC 296 at T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas. | Mikael Ona / ZUMA Wire, IMAGO

Listen to the UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington 6th Round Post-Fight Show now!

UFC 296 just wrapped and we’re still trying to figure out what happened to Colby Covington. The king of volume certainly had very little of it tonight. Leon Edwards basically had his way with him 26 different ways from Sunday in one of the most boring fights of the year. Perhaps now the UFC will make way for more deserving title challengers.

Paddy Pimblett bests Tony Ferguson, Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis brawl

Tony Ferguson (red gloves) fights Paddy Pimblett (blue gloves) during UFC 296 at T-Mobile Arena.
Tony Ferguson (red gloves) fights Paddy Pimblett (blue gloves) during UFC 296 at T-Mobile Arena. | StephenxR.xSylvanie / USA TODAY Network, IMAGO

Alexandre Pantoja was able to defend his title as well, but it wasn’t an easy task. Once Royval got his timing down—or more accurately, once Pantoja got tired—he was able to start getting in some good work but Pantoja would change levels every time Royval started getting somewhere with his striking. It was a great fight at the start that devolved into straight survival mode by the champ.

Paddy Pimblett looked good in those first two rounds but by the time the third rolled around, he was spent and Ferguson was able to mount a bit more offense than in the previous two rounds. It wasn’t enough, though, and Paddy won a comfortable decision against a truly shopworn Ferguson in a fight that depressed everyone.

Sandwiched in between fights was a brawl that broke out in the crowd. It was between middleweight champion Sean Strickland and his next opponent, Dricus DuPlessis. The two have been hot under the collar since Thursday when Dricus managed to get under Sean’s skin with some comments about his father.

Fast forward to tonight when the UFC in their divine wisdom, sat these two literally a single row apart from each other. They jawed back and forth constantly until Sean decided he’d had enough and after making sure Gilbert Burns’ kids were out of the way, he leapt over the chairs and started wailing on Dricus.

The commentary team would bemoan the violence and say how bad it looked, yet at the end of the broadcast, they talked it up and aired it on TV. Then, official UFC accounts on social media began promoting it. Gross.

There were some great moments throughout, but we have to save something for the episode, so here’s a look at the quick results:

UFC 296 Results

Main Card

Prelims

Don’t forget to check out the bonus section where the boys give their patented, five-star review of all the fights. You can’t get this anywhere…or can you? We like to think you can’t, so we’ll stick with that. Just be sure to listen!

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About the author
Stephie Haynes
Stephie Haynes

Stephie Haynes has been covering MMA since 2005. She has also worked for MMA promotion Proelite and apparel brand TapouT. She hosted TapouT’s official radio show for four years before joining Bloody Elbow in 2012. She has interviewed everyone there is to interview in the fight game from from Dana White to Conor McGregor to Kimbo Slice, as well as mainstream TV, film and music stars including Norman Reedus, RZA and Anthony Bourdain. She has been producing the BE podcast network since 2017 and hosts four of its current shows.

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