On This Day — November 6: Usman Settles It With Covington at UFC 268
November 6 belongs to one building. On this night in 2021, Madison Square Garden hosted UFC 268 — two title rematches on top, a Fight of the Year underneath them, and a debut on the prelims that nobody in the arena understood the size of yet. Twenty thousand, seven hundred fifty people paid $9.9 million at the gate to watch a card that kept outdoing itself.
November 6 belongs to one building. On this night in 2021, Madison Square Garden hosted UFC 268 — two title rematches on top, a Fight of the Year underneath them, and a debut on the prelims that nobody in the arena understood the size of yet. Twenty thousand, seven hundred fifty people paid $9.9 million at the gate to watch a card that kept outdoing itself.
2021 — Usman settles it with Covington, again
The first Usman–Covington fight, at UFC 245, ended with Kamaru Usman stopping Colby Covington in the fifth round and breaking his jaw along the way. The rematch was somehow closer. Usman nearly repeated the trick early: in the second round he floored Covington twice with left hooks, and the fight looked one punch from over. Covington survived on instinct, then did what he does — he kept coming, kicked the body, and dragged the champion into the championship rounds with the scores genuinely in doubt.
All three judges gave it to Usman — 48–47, 48–47, 49–46 — and then the feud produced its most surprising image: the two men embracing before the scores were even read, Covington telling the champion the hatred had been business. It was Usman's night, and everyone in the building, including the loser, knew it.
2021 — Namajunas keeps what she took
The co-main event was the other rematch: Rose Namajunas defending the strawweight title against Zhang Weili, seven months after taking it from her with a first-round head kick. This time there was no single moment to decide it. Zhang wrestled — five takedowns across the five rounds — and Namajunas answered with the cleaner striking and the championship rounds' composure. The cards split: 49–46, 48–47, 47–48, for Namajunas. Where the first fight was a detonation, the second was an argument — and the champion won the argument.
2021 — Gaethje and Chandler go to war
The main card had opened with the fight people still talk about first. Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler had promised violence and delivered a three-round war of a purity the sport rarely manages: Chandler hurt Gaethje early, Gaethje's leg kicks and uppercuts slowly dismantled Chandler's base, and both men finished the fight swinging on empty. Gaethje took it 29–28, 29–28, 30–27, and both took Fight of the Night.
"I knew exactly what that was going to be," Gaethje said. "He is a warrior. We are living in the wrong times. Let me tell you, me and him should have been fighting to the death in the Coliseum. That's what should have happened."
2021 — Vera's front kick ends Edgar's night
Frankie Edgar, the former lightweight champion fighting out his career at bantamweight, was two rounds into a competitive fight with Marlon Vera when Vera uncorked a front kick straight up the middle in the third. It landed flush, and Edgar was done at 3:50 — just the eighth front-kick knockout in UFC history, and a Performance of the Night bonus for Vera. It was the kind of finish that closes a chapter: a legend of the previous era, beaten by a technique from the highlight reels of the next one.
2021 — A kickboxer named Pereira walks in
The prelims hid the night's most consequential debut. Alex Pereira — a former two-division GLORY kickboxing champion, then famous mainly as the only man to have knocked out Israel Adesanya — made his first UFC walk and, after being grappled through a slow first round, detonated a flying knee 18 seconds into the second to finish Andreas Michailidis. Performance of the Night. Inside two years he would hold UFC gold in two divisions; on November 6 he was a curiosity on the early card, and the knee was the first warning.
Also on this day
- 2021, New York: Chris Barnett's spinning wheel kick knockout of Gian Villante earned a Performance of the Night bonus in Villante's final UFC appearance.
- 2021, New York: Bobby Green stopped Al Iaquinta in the first round — his first UFC finish in eight years — for another Performance of the Night.
- 2021, New York: Ian Garry knocked out Jordan Williams at 4:59 of the first round in his own UFC debut.
Two rematches settled, one war for the ages, one legend finished, one future champion introduced: November 6, 2021 is what a great card is supposed to look like.
