The UFC is back in T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, with its 14th and final event of the year with a pair of title fights. A total of 12 fights are scheduled for the UFC 296 stacked card, headlined by Edwards defending his UFC welterweight championship belt against Colby Covington.
The fight will be Covington’s third attempt at winning the welterweight title after losses against then-champion Kamaru Usman in 2019 and 2021. On the other hand is UFC Welterweight Champion Leon Edwards, who has successfully defended the welterweight title in two fights against Kamaru Usman over the last 18 months.
Watch: UFC 296 Live stream Edwards vs. Covington fight
In the co-main event, new flyweight king Alexandre Pantoja takes his first test against Brandon Royval. Pantoja captured the flyweight championship from Brandon Moreno in a five-round split decision at UFC 290 that earned Fight of the Night honors.
On the other hand, Royval will enter the ring on a three-fight winning streak since losing to Pantoja with back-to-back bonuses.
When is UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington?
The event is set to kick off on Saturday, December 16.
The early prelims will begin at 6:30 pm ET / 3:30 pm PT / 11:30 pm GMT / 10:30 am AEDT (Sunday).
The Preliminary card will begin at 8:00 pm ET / 5:00 pm PT / 1:00 am GMT (Sunday) / 12:00 pm AEDT (Sunday).
The main card will begin at 10:00 pm ET / 7:00 pm PT / 3:00 am GMT (Sunday) / 2:00 pm AEDT (Sunday).
Note that these timings could change due to the length of the undercard fights.
Where is UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington?
The highly anticipated fight will take place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
How to Watch UFC 296 for free?
Unfortunately, there are no way to watch the Pay Per View event free, but still there secrect tricks to watch only prelims fight free on Fitepass.
Here’s step by step guide, how can you watch UFC 296 prelims fight online for free.
Visit Fitepass and create a free account, don’t need to pay or you will never charge automatically. After creating an account you will get live chat option, simply chat with the agent and let them know your user id or email to active your account for prelims fight. Hope, the tricks will work to access UFC 296 prelims fight free of cost.
How to watch UFC 296 on ESPN+ PPV
Those with an active ESPN+ subscription can purchase the UFC PPV event for $79.99. For new and monthly ESPN+ subscribers, the PPV package can be purchased for $134.98 and comes with an annual subscription to ESPN+ along with excess to the next UFC pay-per-view event.
Prelims:
ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes
For the prelims, viewers can also tune in to ESPN News. The platform is available via Hulu Live TV, Sling TV, Fubo TV, Vidgo, AT&T TV, and YouTube TV.
Early Prelims:
ESPN+ ($10.99 per month or $109.99 per year) and UFC Fight Pass ($11.99 per month, Annual Plan $114.99).
How to Watch UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington in the United Kingdom:
Prelims and main card will be broadcast live on TNT Sports Box Office for £29.99 contract-free and do not require a broadband connection. Do not forget to cancel the subscription if you don’t want to continue, as the subscription renews automatically.
Watch: UFC 296 Live stream Edwards vs. Covington fight
Moreover, you can navigate to Channel 494 on BT TV or Channel 490 on Sky TV. UFC 296 is also available to watch for EE TV and Virgin Media TV customers.
UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington Preview
Leon Edwards Bio and Record
* Nationality: British
* Date of birth: August 25, 1991
* Height: 6′ 0″
* Weight: 170lbs
* Reach: 74 in
* Leg Reach: 43 in
* Last Fight: Win
* Fight Record: 21-3-0
Advertised as a knockout artist in 2014, ‘Rocky’ had a rough start to his UFC career, losing bouts to Claudio Silva and Kamaru Usman in two of his first four fights.
After that, he slowly regrouped and worked his way up the ladder. The UFC pulled the promotional trigger on Edwards with a main event spot against Donald Cerrone in Singapore in 2018, where he overcame Cerrone.
Edwards will enter the ring on an 11-fight winning streak, notably defeating Kamaru Usman in back-to-back fights. He claimed the welterweight championship belt by knocking out Usman with a stunning head kick in the fifth round of their August 2022 meeting.
Colby Covington Bio and Record
* Nationality: American
* Date of birth: February 22, 1988
* Height: 5′ 11″
* Weight: 170lbs
* Reach: 72 in
* Leg Reach: 41 in
* Last Fight: Win
* Fight Record: 17-3-0
During the latter half of the 2010s, Usman and Covington were the two most promising prospects and expected to take over the welterweight division. A 2017 win against Demian Maia was a breakthrough moment in Covington’s career for several reasons.
In March 2022, he defeated compatriot Jorge Masvidalon by unanimous decision and will enter the ring for the first time since then. Although he is coming off a nearly two-year break, he is still dogged and durable and would like to show it against Edwards.
What has been said?
Edwards spoke to TNT Sports and said:
“I’m excited to go out there and shut him up. He’s a good talker, so I’m going to go out there, shut him up, and continue my reign.
“I get up in the morning thinking, ‘I can’t lose to him.’ I won’t lose to him. Having someone like that motivates me to get up and train and kick his a**** even more.”
Canceled or Postponed Fights:
Vicente Luque and Ian Garry were also scheduled to take on each other in a top-10 welterweight in UFC 296, but the fight has been removed from the card due to Garry falling ill.
Randy Brown (17-5) vs Muslim Salikhov (19-4) was included in the card but removed after the former succumbed to the flu that put him in the hospital.
Another fight has also been removed from the card after UFC featherweight Giga Chikadze withdrew from his fight against Josh Emmett because of a torn groin.
What else is on the card?
Brandon Royval Bio and Record
* Nationality: American
* Date of birth: August 16, 1992
* Height: 5′ 9″
* Weight: 126lbs
* Reach: 68 in
* Leg Reach: 38.5 in
* Last Fight: Win
* Fight Record: 15-6-0
Brandon Royval has worked his entire career to get to this point, and it would be interesting to see whether he can pass the test. These two fighters have met once before, in April 2021, where he submitted to a second-round rear-naked choke from the American Top Team-trained Brazilian.
However, since then, the 31-year-old has won three straight fights and will seek vengeance along with Pantoja’s belt in Las Vegas. He last appeared in the ring on April 15, when he wiped out Matheus Nicolau with a first-round knee strike and follow-up punches.
Alexandre Pantoja Record and Bio
* Nationality: Brazilian
* Date of birth: April 16, 1990
* Height: 5′ 5″
* Weight: 125lbs
* Reach: 67 in
* Leg Reach: 36.5 in
* Last Fight: Win
* Fight Record: 26-5-0
The Brazilian fighter is looking to win his second fight against Royval after securing the victory via submission when these two fighters faced off in August 2021.
In July, Pantoja claimed the title via a split decision victory over Brandon Moreno, his fourth win in a row and second against Moreno.
Also on the UFC 296 card, viewers will witness Briton Paddy Pimblett taking on Tony Ferguson and undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov facing Karate ace Stephen Thompson in a 3-round bout.
UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington Fight Card
Main Card
* Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington (For Edwards’ UFC welterweight championship)
* Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval (For Pantoja’s UFC flyweight championship)
* Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson (Welterweight)
* Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett (Lightweight)
* Josh Emmett vs. Bryce Mitchell (Featherweight)
Prelims
* Alonzo Menifield vs. Dustin Jacoby (Light heavyweight)
* Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa (Women’s bantamweight)
* Cody Garbrandt vs. Brian Kelleher (Bantamweight)
* Casey O’Neill vs. Arianne Lipski (Women’s flyweight)
Early Prelims
* Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Cody Durden (Flyweight)
* Andre Fili vs. Lucas Almeida (Featherweight)
* Martin Buday vs. Shamil Gaziev (Heavyweight)
