Geoff Neal says Usman-Covington was ‘entertaining’ but technique wasn’t good

Geoff Neal was surprised how the UFC 245 main event between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington played out.

It was a battle between two high-level wrestlers, yet there was not one takedown attempt. Instead, they decided to stand and trade until Usman dropped Covington twice in the fifth and earned a TKO win to retain his belt.

While Neal, an up-and-coming welterweight contender, found this fight entertaining, he wasn’t impressed with the Usman and Covington’s technique.

“It was entertaining. They fought for five rounds, punched each other the entire time. I expected to see more wrestling which I was surprised about,” Neal said to BJPENN.com. “I wanted to see more wrestling to see who the better wrestler is because I didn’t want to see two wrestlers striking. It was entertaining but I didn’t think the technique was too good.”

After the fight was over, Covington took to social media to complain about the stoppage. Fans were torn about the end of the fight, yet Neal feels it was about as perfect as a stoppage Marc Goddard could have made.

“The stoppage was good. Covington was going to take more damage so the stoppage was good, the stoppage was perfect,” Neal said. “The ref’s job is to protect you, and in his mind, he felt he could keep going. But, at this point, you are taking unnecessary damage.”

Although Neal was not impressed by their striking technique, he knows he still has to win a couple more fights until he gets a shot at either one of them. He is currently 5-0 in the UFC and coming off a knockout win at UFC 245 over Mike Perry. So, the hope for “Handz of Steel” is he fights a top-10 opponent next and meets Usman or Covington sometime fairly soon.

What do you make of Geoff Neal’s comments about the UFC 245 main event?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 1/6/2020.