UFC 268 — After beating Colby Covington again, Kamaru Usman has GSP to chase — but does he want to?

NEW YORK — A pound-for-pound No. 1 fighter steps into the cage with the second-best fighter in his weight class and makes him look second rate. That was the narrative early on in the UFC 268 main event, as welterweight champion Kamaru Usman bloodied Colby Covington in the first round and knocked him down twice in the second.

But then Covington did what an aspiring champion does. He dug deep and climbed back into the fight, and by the final round on Saturday, he had Madison Square Garden rocking with a “Colby! Colby!” chant.

When the final horn sounded, we had an upset. No, Usman did not lose his belt. He was the winner on all three judges’ scorecards. Despite the longstanding animosity that accrued over the build-up to two UFC welterweight championship fights, Covington and Usman hugged in the middle of the Octagon and offered each other respect. Who would have ever expected to see that?

But it happened. And it should happen again. The fight, and the show of respect.

This was no mere 170-pound championship bout. This matchup had history behind it.

When these two met in 2019, it was a classic back-and-forth punctuated by Usman scoring a fifth-round knockout after Covington was heard between rounds telling his cornermen that his jaw was broken.

Yet in the aftermath, Covington continued to spin a whole different narrative…