All you need to know about UFC 296 as Edwards defends title against Covington

Leon Edwards will be out to make history when he defends his UFC welterweight title against Colby Covington at UFC 296.

‘Rocky’ is bidding to become the first Brit in history to make two successful title defences as he headlines the final UFC pay-per-view show of the year.

Edwards, who is undefeated in the Octagon since 2015, will be involved in his first fight since his successive victories over Kamaru Usman.

Covington hasn’t fought since beating Jorge Masvidal over five rounds at UFC 272 in March 2022.

The American earned his third title shot by weighing in as the backup fighter ahead of Edwards’ majority-decision victory against Usman at UFC 286 and impressing Dana White in the process.

Covington, whose previous two attempts at capturing UFC gold came in losing efforts to ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’, has been on a collision course with Edwards for years.

Edwards vs Covington: Date and how to follow

UFC 296 will take place on Saturday, December 16.

The action is being held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The preliminary card will get underway around 11:30pm UK time before the main card at 2am, with the main event then around 5am.

The prelims are set to be broadcast live on the UFC Fight Pass and fans can sign up to the pass here.

And then the main card will be shown live on TNT Sports in the UK. Full details on how to watch the event can be found here.

talkSPORT will have updates throughout fight week while talkSPORT.com will be on hand for the best of the reaction.

To tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 through the website, click HERE for the live stream. You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.

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UFC 296: Fight card 

Subject to change

• MAIN EVENT: Leon Edwards vs Colby Covington – for UFC Welterweight title
• Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Royval – for UFC Flyweight title
• Shavkat Rakhmonov vs Stephen Thompson
• Paddy Pimblett vs Tony Ferguson
• Vicente Luque vs. Ian Machado Garry

Preliminary card

• Josh Emmett vs Giga Chikadze
• Alonzo Menifield vs Dustin Jacoby
• Martin Buday vs Shamil Gaziev
• Cody Garbtandt vs Brian Kelleher

Early preliminary card

• Irene Aldana vs Karol Rosa
• Randy Brown vs Muslim Salikhov
• Tagir Ulanbekov vs Cody Durden
• Casey O’Neill vs Ariane Lipski

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Edwards vs Covington: What has been said?

UFC president Dana White said: “The champ hasn’t lost a fight in eight years and is coming off back-to-back wins over the greatest welterweight of all time – Kamaru Usman.

“He’s defending his title against Colby Covington, a relentless pressure fighter with unstoppable cardio.”

Edwards was previously incensed that Covington was deemed worthy of a third shot at winning UFC gold.

But now he is ready to silence the American who has been trash-talking ahead of the fight.

“I just want to fight him because I don’t like him so that will be even more fuel for me in training,” Edwards said.

“He’s an alright fighter – but look at his resume compared to my resume.

“He hasn’t beaten anyone in the top five, he’s fought people at the back end of their careers and his last five fights are win-lose-win-lose-win, it’s not consistent.”