Henry Cejudo: Colby Covington will beat UFC champ Leon Edwards, grind him out for five rounds

Henry Cejudo thinks Colby Covington is a bad stylistic matchup for UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards.

Covington (17-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC), who weighed in as a backup for Edwards’ title defense against Kamaru Usman at UFC 286, was named the No. 1 contender by UFC president Dana White. But Edwards said Covington doesn’t deserve the fight, and he prefers settling his beef with Jorge Masvidal if he emerges victorious against Gilbert Burns at UFC 287.

With Covington’s relentless pace and grappling, Cejudo thinks it’s best for Edwards (21-3 MMA, 13-2 UFC) to avoid the fight.

“When I say it’s an easy fight for Colby, stylistically you’re a good fight for him because your wrestling is still a little suspect,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “With Colby Covington, he’s gonna be coming at you from Round 1 to Round 5, where Kamaru Usman wanted to display more of his actual fighting. You have time to get better in these positions, but the question is will your ego allow you to? Because nobody likes to wrestle. It’s too tiring.”

Although Edwards was able to fend off Usman’s grappling for the most part in his majority decision win in Saturday’s headliner at The O2 in London, Cejudo sees Covington overwhelming him.

“Prediction is Colby beats him,” Cejudo said. “Colby maybe doesn’t stop him, but he grinds him out for five rounds. Might be four rounds to one or 3-2, but I think where Colby strives the best and where Leon didn’t – maybe he did this time with Kamaru, but in the past, I can see Colby Covington being the toughest matchup for him. He’s better off fighting a guy like Khamzat Chimaev, fighting a guy that doesn’t have five-round experience but yet still has that wrestling.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 286.