Colby Covington vs. Jorge Masvidal to Headline UFC 272 on March 5

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has been forced to call an audible for its March 5 pay-per-view event.

UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell confirmed to promotion broadcast partner ESPN that a five-round non-title bout between Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal will headline UFC 272 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The card was originally supposed to feature two title bouts — Alexander Volkanovski vs Max Holloway and Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan — but Holloway withdrew from the featherweight title trilogy and the Sterling-Yan bantamweight championship rematch was postponed.

Covington and Masvidal have history as former American Top Team training partners, but what was once a friendship has devolved into a bitter rivalry in recent years. Covington has since relocated to MMA Masters, while Masvidal remains at ATT.

Covington last appeared at UFC 268, where he dropped a competitive five-round verdict to Kamaru Usman in a welterweight title bout on Nov. 6. It was Covington’s second defeat to Usman in a championship fight, as he also fell to the “Nigerian Nightmare” at UFC 245 in December 2019. Overall, Covington is 11-3 in the Octagon with victories over Demian Maia, Rafael dos Anjos, Robbie Lawler and Tyron Woodley to his credit.

Masvidal, meanwhile, was supposed to face Leon Edwards at UFC 269 in December but was forced to withdraw from the bout due to injury. Prior to that, “Gamebred” came up short against Usman in title fights at UFC 251 via decision and at UFC 261 via second-round KO.