Robert Whittaker gives his prediction for Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington

UFC 296 is headlined by a welterweight title bout between champion Leon Edwards and challenger Colby Covington.  It’s a fight long in the making.  

Former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker gave his prediction of the welterweight title bout on the MMArcade Podcast on Wednesday.

Covington’s smack talk leading up to the fight has been nonstop.  Edwards considers him a ‘character’ and doesn’t pay much attention to it.  

“Colby is a real life keyboard warrior,” said Whittaker.  “He’s a keyboard warrior in real life.  It’s only for the cameras, everyone knows it at this point… When he get in front of the cameras, he turns it on 100.  I love it.  I’m here for it.”

“If you were to ask me before the second Usman fight, or third fight, the second title fight with Usman, if Leon had a hope in heck against Colby, I would have said no.  No way, just because I’ve been ringside for Colby’s fights and I’ve seen the volume and output, his ability to throw 3,600 punches then shoot, fail the shot, come up again and start throwing again only to reshoot.  To do that for five rounds is uncanny,” Whittaker continued.  “He’s got an extra lung.  It seems that way.  But this was before the performance Leon put on last time.  

“I think the performance he put on against Usman in his last fight really defined how he’s going to beat Colby.  Where Colby’s had problems is with guys he can’t just walk into and take down.  We saw that with the Usman fights.  He couldn’t walk through his punches to take him down, wear him out a bit, and then start to beat him in the punches because of that like we saw Colby do against [Robbie] Lawler, like we’ve seen him do against a lot of other guys.  I think Leon, in the last fight, showed me that he can defend takedowns, more importantly, he can threaten you in a space before the takedowns even happen.  So, you’r worried and you’re in danger entering that space, just trying to get in there.  

“Being a southpaw too, great advantage.  To get in that range, you’re in danger.  Even when you do get in that range maybe you took shots, maybe you didn’t, you can’t cement what you risked so highly to get in there.  I think the way he fought Usman in his last fight, Leon, was spectacular and the performance kind of highlighted for me how he beats Colby.”

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“I’m going to lead on Edwards.  I think I saw enough.  I think he’s going to have too many weapons.  I think he’s going to keep Colby guessing, or at least threatened, so he can’t just recklessly get in there which he’s done on some opponents.  And I do think, let’s say, heaven forbid, he closes that gap, he pushed him up against the fence, I don’t think he’ll be able to hold him down to the point where he can make money on it, like a significant return on his investment.  I think we could see a decision win, but the other way.  I think Leon Edwards could win by decision,” Whittaker said.