Biggest Winners, Loser From UFC 272

UFC 272 went down from inside T-Mobile Arena last night (Sat., March 5, 2022) in Las Vegas, Nevada, In the main event of the evening, Colby Covington defeated Jorge Masvidal via a lopsided unanimous decision after 25 minutes of action (see it again here). In the co-main event, Rafael dos Anjos battered late replacement Renato Moicano to earn a bloody win on all of the judges scorecards (recap here).

Biggest Winner: Colby Covington

After months and months of trash talk between the two former friends-turned rivals, Covington and Masvidal finally got the chance to put hands on one another. But only one of them backed up his talk, as “Chaos” dominated the fight from the opening bell, grinding out a clear-cut unanimous decision win after 25 minutes of cage time. Not only did he get the best of “Gamebred” when it came to the wrestling department — which was expected — but “Chaos” won the majority of the striking exchanges, minus a knock down he suffered at the hands of the “BMF” champion. With Masvidal behind him, Covington can now look ahead to bigger and better things, which could be a fight against another one of his former American Top Team (ATT) stablemates, Dustin Poirier, who he called out after the fight instead of the winner of Khamzat Chimaev vs Gilbert Burns.

Runner Up: Kevin Holland

Yes, Rafael dos Anjos’ and Bryce Mitchell’s win over Renato Moicano and Edson Barbosa, respectively, were impressive, but Holland gets the nod here because he had a lot to lose coming into the event. That’s because “Trail Blazer” came into the fight earning our “Who Needs A Win Badly” slot after going winless in his last three fights, two losses and one No Contest (NC). His second round TKO win over Alex Oliveira not only gave him a new lease on his UFC life, but banked him an extra $50,000 for “Performance of the Night.” Not to mention he gets a ton of pressure off his shoulders and he can go into his next fight with newfound confidence and momentum.

Biggest Loser: Greg Hardy

It’s safe to say that the UFC experiment that is Greg Hardy might be done. The former NFL defensive end suffered a first-round technical knockout (TKO) loss at the hands of Serghei Spivak, giving him his third straight defeat inside the Octagon. To make matters worse, “The Prince of War” has been stopped in all three of those defeats via strikes, two in the opening frame. Furthermore, the fight was the last on Hardy’s current UFC deal, which means the chances of the promotion actually extending him after his latest string of defeats is highly-unlikely. If this is the end for Hardy under the UFC banner, some will say he lasted longer than expected, fighting 10 times, collecting a 4-4-1-1 mark.

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