Leon ‘Rocky’ Edwards successfully defended his welterweight belt for the second time by dominating Colby ‘Chaos’ Covington in a unanimous-decision win (49-46, 49-46, 49-46) as a -160 favorite in Saturday’s UFC 296 headliner from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Bettors backing Edwards to win by decision cashed tickets for a +160 return. ‘Yes’ on the prop for the fight to go the distance was a winner at odds ranging from -140 to -180, and wagers on ‘over’ 4.5 rounds (-166 at DraftKings) also hit.

All three judges scored the first four rounds in favor of the 32-year-old Edwards, who hasn’t tasted defeat since dropping a unanimous-decision loss to Kamaru Usman at UFC Orlando on Dec. 19 of 2015. (I remember…because I was there.) Since that setback, Edwards is 12-0 with one no-contest after an accidental eye poke rendered Belal Muhammad unable to continue early in the second round.

During this undefeated eight-year stretch, the Birmingham, England, native has beaten the likes of Usman (twice), former interim welterweight champion Covington, Vicente Luque, Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, former lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos, Gunnar Nelson, Bryan Barberena and Nate Diaz.

The 35-year-old Covington hadn’t competed since capturing a UD victory over Jorge ‘Gamebred’ Masvidal at UFC 272 on March 5 of 2022. Known for his wrestling and cardio, Covington was outpaced by Edwards, who got the better of the grappling exchanges, too.

Covington is now 0-3 in title fights, losing twice to Usman before Saturday’s setback against ‘Rocky.’ He’s always punched below the belt with his trash talking toward opponents, but he dipped to a new low at last Thursday’s UFC 296 press conference when he mocked the murder of Edwards’s father when he was only 13 years old.

“I thought he looked old and slow,” UFC President Dana White said about Covington.

Paddy Pimblett had this to say about Covington, “He’s a piece of shit, lad. He’s a proper piece of shit.”

In the co-main event, UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja successfully defended his strap for the first time in a UD win (50-45, 50-45, 49-46) over Brandon Royval as a -215 ‘chalk.’

‘Over’ bettors cashed nice tickets on wagers like ‘over’ 2.5 rounds (+110), ‘over’ 3.5 rounds (+190) and ‘over’ 4.5 rounds (+280).

In a key welterweight scrap, fifth-ranked Shavkat Rakhmonov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) submitted sixth-ranked Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson via rear-naked choke with only four seconds remaining in Round 2. Rakhmonov handed ‘Wonderboy’ his first career submission loss as a massive favorite in the -625 to -685 range.

Rakhmonov collected his 10th career submission win to go with eight career knockouts. Obviously, he has a 100-percent finish rate. It would seem as if second-ranked Muhammad, who is 9-0 with one no-contest (vs. Edwards) since April of 2019, is in the front of the line to take on Edwards next.

If it’s not Muhammad, though, it’s definitely Rakhmonov, the 29-year-old Kazakhstan product, who also owns submission wins over 13th-ranked Neil Magny and eighth-ranked Geoff Neal.

Pimblett improved to 21-3 overall and 5-0 in the UFC with a UD win (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) over Tony ‘El Cucuy’ Ferguson as a -300 to -335 ‘chalk.’ Pimblett was able to score takedowns early in both Rounds 2 and 3 before dealing out ground-and-pound punishment.

Ferguson really didn’t even attempt to get back to his feet, spending most of the last 10 minutes of the contest trying to land elbows from the bottom. Pimblett appeared to be gassed at the start of the third stanza and conceded as much at his post-fight presser.

Nevertheless, Ferguson had no urgency to get back to his feet after being taken down early in the final frame. Working from the top, Pimblett was able to get his wind back and finish strong.

Ferguson has now lost seven fights in a row and at the age of 39, he might have made his final walk to the Octagon on Saturday night.

“I’d like to see Tony retire,” White said at the post-fight presser. With that said, White did point out how nearly all of Ferguson’s losses during this skid have been to the world’s top 155ers.

Ferguson had won 12 fights in a row before losing to Justin Gaethje by fifth-round knockout at UFC 249 in May of 2020. White wasn’t overly emphatic about making Ferguson retire, so I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s given one more bout.

In the pay-per-view opener, Josh Emmett ended Bryce Mitchell’s night with a one-hit quitter that was one of the scariest KOs in UFC history. Mitchell was knocked out cold less than two minutes into the bout by a powerful right hand from Emmett.

Mitchell went into convulsions in a terrifying scene that even had veteran announcers Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier briefly spooked.

But fortunately, Mitchell woke up and was able to walk out of the cage on his own. Mitchell, who took the short-notice fight on only 10 days’ notice after Giga Chikadze was forced out with an injury, was released from the hospital before the main event started and assured his fans he was okay with a post to his social-media accounts.

“It could have been a lot worse,” Mitchell said. “When I was in that hospital, I was getting rolled by people with no legs, no arms, faces all messed up, face turned sideways like the dude got in a car wreck, so I cannot complain about anything. I’m so happy to be here and I’m healthy and I love you all and I thank you.”

Mitchell has now lost two of his last three scraps, but he’s still 16-2 overall and 7-2 in the UFC.

In the Prelims headliner on ESPN2, 14th-ranked light heavyweight Alonzo Menifield edged 15th-ranked Dustin Jacoby via UD (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) as a +210 underdog. Menifield is 4-0 with one no-contest in his last five Octagon appearances, and he’s posted a 6-1 record with 1 NC in his last eight fights.

Since starting his UFC tenure with a 6-0-1 record and three knockouts, Jacoby has lost three of his past four fights via decisions (two UDs and one split).

In a women’s bantamweight showdown, fifth-ranked Irene Aldana bested ninth-ranked Karol Rosa via UD (29-28, 29-28, 29-28). Both ladies won an extra $50,000 for Fight of the Night honors.

Former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt produced his best performance in years with a first-round KO win over Brian Kelleher at the 3:42 mark. ‘No Love’ has won back-to-back fights after struggling through a 1-5 stretch from November of 2017 through December of 2021.

The 32-year-old Garbrandt appears to still have plenty of gas left in his tank. He called out eighth-ranked Deiveson Figueiredo, who is the former flyweight kingpin who won his 135-pound debut earlier this month.

Heavyweight Shamil Gaziev and featherweight Andre Fili both scored KO wins over Martin Buday and Lucas Almeida, respectively, in the first two fights of the show. Then flyweight Tagir Ulanbekov beat Cody Durden by second-round submission, and Ariane Lipski submitted Casey O’Neill with an armbar in Round 2.

Emmett, Lipski and Gaziev bagged an extra 50K with Performance of the Night bonuses.

The promotion’s first PPV card in 2024 will be in Toronto, where Sean Strickland will defend his middleweight belt against Dricus du Plessis. This bout got a lot more interesting after Strickland and Du Plessis had an intense face off at Friday’s press conference, and then they fought in the stands during UFC 296.

As of Monday afternoon, most books had Strickland installed as a -135 to -145 favorite, with Du Plessis listed as a +114 to +124 underdog.