12/17/23: Leon Edwards Earns Comfortable Win Over Colby Covington
Plus, Alexandre Pantoja's first win as champion
Welcome to the Sunday edition of the Knockdown Daily. Today’s issue covers results from yesterday’s UFC and KSW events. Let’s get started.
Leon Edwards Cruises To Victory Over Colby Covington
Leon Edwards successfully defended his UFC Welterweight Championship against Colby Covington on Saturday night, controlling the challenger through a slow-paced five-round bout to win via unanimous decision.
Edwards’ victory headlined UFC 296, which took place from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Edwards pressed forward against a cautious and conservative Covington in the opening few rounds of their fight. As Covington whiffed on his striking, Edwards was able to score with punches to the head and kicks to the leg.
Apart from a final round — which Covington was able to steal on scorecards — Edwards blocked numerous takedown attempts from Covington and forced the fight to be on the feet for nearly all of the bout.
Edwards has now defended his belt twice since earning it off Kamaru Usman with a last-minute knockout win at UFC 278. His other win as champion was a March rematch against Usman.
Covington was making his third title challenge in recent years. He unsuccessfully fought Usman during his title reign twice from 2019 to 2021, losing in both instances. He was given this title shot after a 2022 victory over Jorge Masvidal, who is now retired.
Alexandre Pantoja picked up his first win as UFC Flyweight Champion in the co-main event, going the distance against Brandon Royval for a unanimous decision outcome.
Pantoja led a fast-paced battle against a competitive Royval, who was willing to engage in quick exchanges. Pantoja won rounds with ground control and slick striking on the feet. His best moment arguably emerged from the fourth round, when he tried for a rear naked choke that Royval had to battle out of.
Pantoja earned the title earlier this year, dethroning Brandon Moreno in a split decision. Moreno is scheduled to return in the first quarter of 2024 in a five-round bout against rising flyweight contender Amir Albazi, potentially setting up Pantoja’s next opponent.
Royval was placed in a title shot position after attaining a trio of wins at flyweight. This included a submission victory over Matt Schnell and a finish earlier this year against Matheus Nicolau.
Here are the quick results for UFC’s final event of 2023:
Main Card (10:00PM EST / 7:00PM PST) (PPV)
Bout 12: Leon Edwards def. Colby Covington via Decision, Unanimous (UFC Welterweight Championship)
Bout 11: Alexandre Pantoja def. Brandon Royval via Decision, Unanimous (UFC Flyweight Championship)
Bout 10: Shavkat Rakhmonov def. Stephen Thompson via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 2, 4:56)
Bout 9: Paddy Pimblett def. Tony Ferguson via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 8: Josh Emmett def. Bryce Mitchell via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 1:57)
Preliminary Card (8:00PM EST / 5:00PM PST) (ESPN2 / ESPN+)
Bout 7: Alonzo Menifield def. Dustin Jacoby via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 6: Irene Aldana def. Karol Rosa via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 5: Cody Garbrandt def. Brian Kelleher via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 3:42)
Bout 4: Ariane Lipski def. Casey O’Neill via Submission, Armbar (RD 2, 1:18)
Early Prelims (6:30PM EST / 3:30PM PST) (ESPN+ / UFC Fight Pass)
Bout 3: Tagir Ulanbekov def. Cody Durden via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 2, 4:25)
Bout 2: Andre Fili def. Lucas Almeida via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 3:32)
Bout 1: Shamil Gaziev def. Martin Buday via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 0:56)
Salahdine Parnasse Falls Short of KSW Triple Champ Plans With Loss To Adrian Bartosinski
Adrian Bartosinski put the triple-champ possibility for Salahdine Parnasse to bed on Saturday night, beating him in a unanimous decision result to retain his KSW Welterweight Championship.
Bartosinski’s win headlined KSW 89, which took place Saturday from the PreZero Arena in Gilwice, Poland.
Parnasse attempted to earn his third belt in KSW with an appearance at middleweight this weekend.
He started his most recent featherweight reign in 2021 and picked up a lightweight title in 2022. He entered Saturday on a five-fight winning streak, including a finish victory over Robert Ruchala from August.
A large part of Saturday’s main event took place in a clinch position against the cage. Bartosinski was able to limit Parnasse from throwing too many strikes and controlled him on the feet.
Bartosinski’s best moment came in the third round when he scored a knockdown with a flying knee that came at the end of a combination of shots.
Bartosinski, an undefeated KSW talent, defended his belt for the first time with the win over Parnasse. He earned the title in April, stopping Artur Szczepaniak in under two minutes with strikes. His record now includes eight wins in KSW.
Pawel Pawlak stopped Michal Materla from his second title reign in Saturday’s co-main event, dominating him through five rounds to win via unanimous decision and claim the KSW Middleweight Championship.
Pawlak picked Materla apart on the feet, landing the better punches despite almost always being on the back foot. Materla would come forward with his own shots but was never able to connect with anything substantial. Because of this, it was the high volume of small shots from Pawlak that dominated the bout through all 25 minutes of action.
Materla, who was making his 30th appearance in a KSW cage, was looking to become champ for the first time since 2015 when he had a six-fight title run. This was his second time challenging for a title since that run many years ago. Materla was given this title shot after attaining a pair of finish victories earlier this year.
39-year-old Materla said after the fight that he would meet with his team to discuss his future in the sport.
Pawlak defended his middleweight belt for the first time in Saturday’s co-main event. He earned the title in June, stopping Tomasz Romanowski in the fifth round with strikes. He is now on a five-fight winning streak in KSW.
Here are the quick results for KSW 89:
Main Card (1:00PM EST / 7:00PM CET) (KSW PPV)
Bout 10:
Bout 9: Pawel Pawlak def. Michal Materla via Decision, Unanimous (KSW Middleweight Championship)
Bout 8: Damian Janikowski def. Tomasz Romanowski via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 7: Raul Tutarauli def. Marcin Held via TKO, Strikes (RD 2)
Bout 6: Andrzej Grzebyk def. Madars Fleminas via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 5: Szymon Bajor def. Viktor Pesta via Decision, Split
Bout 4: Ahmed Vila def. Lukasz Charzewski via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 3: Wilson Varela def. Sebastian Rajewski via TKO, Strikes (RD 1)
Bout 2: Emilia Czerwinska def. Natalia Baczynska-Krawiec via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 1: Michal Domin def. Wojchiech Kazieczko via Decision, Unanimous
Anthony Pettis Beats Benson Henderson For Third Time At Karate Combat 43
A third fight between Anthony Pettis and Benson Henderson headlined a Karate Combat card on Friday night, which was a card full of former UFC talents.
Karate Combat, a combat sports upstart promotion that features a unique striking-based ruleset, held its final event of the year on Friday from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. After going five rounds plus an overtime round, Pettis beat Henderson on scorecards in the main event.
Friday marked the third time that Pettis has beaten Henderson under any combat sports ruleset. They previously met at UFC 164 in 2013 and at WEC 53 in 2010.
24-fight UFC vet Sam Alvey won Karate Combat’s heavyweight belt in the co-main event, beating Ross Levine on scorecards. This weekend was his second time fighting for the promotion, as he made his debut for the promotion in September, beating Adam Rosa.
Lower on the main card, two-fight UFC alum Bruno Souza lost a fight to former Bellator talent Raymond Daniels. And before that, Brandon Jenkins — who had a short UFC stint from 2021 to 2022 — beat Gorjan Slaveski via stoppage.
Four other UFC names competed earlier in the night: Melinda Fabian, Danaa Batgerel, Omar Morales, and Saidyokub Kakhramonov were all successful in their respective outings.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Leon Edwards beat Kamaru Usman on Saturday night. The title has been changed to reflect that he beat Colby Covington, not Usman. Knockdown News regrets this error.