You know a rivalry is intense when it ends in being settled in two UFC bouts. Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier’s rivalry is the one that comes to mind fairly often. Another is Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen. In either case, it was a story of a tough contender who fought hard but came up inches short, conceding the title of the better fighter to the other. The same was the case with Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman, who settled their business on two different occasions, with Usman besting Covington both times.

Lately, Colby Covington has found himself a new hobby which is live-streaming. The former welterweight title has been live-streaming his takes, playing up his ‘Chaos’ persona. Most notably, he’s been attacking UFC star Khamzat Chimaev over the latter’s crypto scheme. Cut to present day and Covington was in attendance at UFC Vegas 102 where ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ was also present. During the stream, Usman walked past Chaos with a plate of food in his hand briefly stopped to greet his former foe. They then shared a quick and somewhat uneasy exchange as Usman appeared to be in too much of a rush to stop and talk at that moment.

Covington explained the situation saying,  “Yes that was Usman guys, he just said, ‘Hey man, we’re gonna talk in a little bit. I don’t think he wanted to talk on the stream, he didn’t want the chat to hear what he had to say but yeah, we’ll definitely chop it up a little bit, maybe we’ll get a picture or maybe we’ll just fight, you never know. When ‘Chaos’ is in the building, it’s unpredictable.”

It was quite surreal to see Covington break character when he saw his former bitter rival. It almost seemed like the real Covington showed, indicating that he was on cordial terms with Usman, at least in his head. Of course, Covington played that “nice guy” bit down by suggesting he could fight Usman if it came down to it. So what did fans have to say when they witnessed the interaction?

Fans divided on Covington Covington’s encounter with Kamaru Usman

It’s generally common in MMA for resentment to come to an end after two challengers face off with one another. However, ‘Chaos’ has a good reputation for keeping the feuds unsquashed. The beef that Colby Covington created with his trash talk was not an easy thing to get past just by shaking hands and parting ways. One follower said, “He wasn’t going to give Colby a clip allowing him to say a bunch of stuff he cannot back up.” Another fan said, “Dude, Colby don’t gotta keep up the act. It’s all good .” Another follower scathingly commented, “Please send him to WWE so his adolescent fan base can disappear with him.”

One follower even expressed disdain at Covington showing his support for Donald Trump at Amile Arena before UFC on ESPN 63. They wrote, “I don’t know, maybe it’s not because I’m American but I can never understand why a fully grown Man would happily walk around with Trump’s head on a necklace, it’s like Tom Aspinall walking around with a pendant of Kier starters head on it.”

Yet another follower showed their sadness that Covington was hiding his good nature inside a “bad guy” facade. They wrote, “You can see Colby is a good person. Sad what money has to make of a person so the person can survive.” UFC fighter Themba Gorimbo had praised ‘Chaos’ saying that the latter helped him when he was struggling financially in the US before landing the UFC contract.

Another netizen gave a matchup plan to Dana White saying, “This is the perfect time to book Usman-Covington 3 and the first fight needs to be in the UFC Hall of Fame.” One follower said, “Colby talk all that Trash and Usman blew past him lol.” Interestingly, Usman praised Covington once during a conversation with Weighing In. He said that ‘Chaos’ was a “good dance partner” who created simmering tensions during the first fight. So with that in mind, will we witness another dance between the two? Let us know in the comments below.