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UFC 245 fight week has officially kicked off in Las Vegas.
All the major players are in town and ready to fight, including PPV headliners Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington, along with champions Max Holloway and Amanda Nunes, as well as challengers Alexander Volkanovski and Germaine de Randamie. All six fighters compete in a trio of heavily contested title fights on the UFC 245 PPV main card on ESPN+ on Saturday, December 14.
With much of the promotional focus on the heated rivalry between welterweight champion Usman and Covington, the rhetoric ranged from rather straightforward fight talk, to conspiracy theories.
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“Epstein didn’t kill himself,” pandered Covington with his opening remarks.
Using his time at the microphone to push his alt-right narrative and relationship with the first family, Covington, the maligned former UFC welterweight champ, cringed more than he quipped, floating doping allegations towards Usman.
Lowest common denominator schtick aside, Covington did sport a rather snazzy Trump-skin-color orange suit and left the MAGA hat at home. His stylist definitely deserves a raise.
Responding to the anti-doping remarks that Covington made earlier in the day, Usman chose to not even dignify the accusations with a proper response
“If I failed a drug test, wouldn’t you guys know?,” offered Usman.
The welterweight champ then went on to chronicle his longstanding feud with Covington, which dates back to 2012 according to Usman.
“My second professional fight he was offered to me,” offered Usman. “I was 1-0. I’d just started.”
Seven years later, after many attempted bookings, Usman and Covington will finally settle their score when they headline the UFC 245 PPV on ESPN+.
In stark contrast to the insults and verbal jabs spewed by Usman and Covington, UFC 245 co-main event fighters Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski were rather cordial as they discussed their upcoming featherweight title fight.
Both Holloway and Volkanovski were straightforward in their assessments of the bout and the stylistical matchup. Then the champion revealed that when he was coming up the ranks, he based his style on former champ and foe Jose Aldo.
“A lot of people know, I base my game off Aldo,” explained Holloway. “Aldo’s one of those guys that was, to me, in a wrestling dominated sport, he was a striker doing it, and I was like ‘oh my gosh, strikers can be champions.’”
It’s two different striking styles and attacks come December 14, when Holloway and Volkanovski throw down for the UFC featherweight title.
Before Usman, Covington, Holloway, and Volkanovski even step in the Octagon at UFC 245, however, UFC dual champ Amanda Nunes will attempt to defend her bantamweight title against former foe Germain de Randamie.
With de Randamie known for her cool and calm demeanor in high pressure situations and during fight week, it was Nunes who took issue with the challenger’s mentality.
“She proved she give up her belt,” offered Nunes regarding de Randamie’s refusal to defend her featherweight title in 2017 against Cris Cyborg. “She’s [not] supposed to be in the spot that I’m in right now … I have all the answers for Saturday night.”
The UFC 245 PPV main card on ESPN+ begins at 7 p.m. PST / 10 p.m. EST.
Follow the BroBible Instagram story for more from the ground floor at UFC 245 fight week.
UFC 245 PPV main card (ESPN+)
Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington – UFC welterweight title fight
Max Holloway vs. Alexander Volkanovski – UFC featherweight title fight
Amanda Nunes vs. Germaine de Randamie – UFC bantamweight title fight
Jose Aldo vs. Marlon Moraes
Urijah Faber vs. Petr Yan
UFC 245 Preliminaries (ESPN 2) 5 p.m. PST / 8 p.m. EST
Mike Perry vs. Geoff Neal
Ketlen Vieira vs. Irene Aldana
Matt Brown vs. Ben Saunders
Ian Heinisch vs. Omari Akhmedov
UFC 245 Early Prelims (UFC Fight Pass) 1:30 p.m. PST / 4:30 p.m. EST
Chase Hooper vs. David Teymur
Brandon Moreno vs. Kai Kara-France
Jessica Eye vs. Viviane Araujo
Punahele Soriano vs. Oskar Piechota
*Fight Card Subject to Change