Following Kamaru Usman's fifth successful title defense at UFC 268 against bitter rival Colby Covington, Chris Pratt sent a message to the reigning welterweight king on social media.
Actor Chris Pratt is one of the many public figures who are massive combat sports fans. The Guardians of the Galaxy star hailed 'The Nigerian Nightmare' as the 'GOAT' and 'pound for pound best.' He also lauded UFC 268 as the "greatest night of fights in a long, long time."
Chris Pratt is a well-known MMA fan and has a bit of an amateur wrestling background himself. He was placed fifth in a high school state wrestling tournament while studying at Lake Stevens High School.
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Chris Pratt once served as a cornerman in an MMA bout as well, during Adel Altamimi's Bellator 214 fight against Brandon McMahan. The two met and became friends at sports analyst Jay Glazer's 'Unbreakable' gym in West Hollywood, where they train together.
"He’s really good. He has really good wrestling – he has a background in wrestling in high school. The guy has really good experience wrestling, and I work with him a lot with striking and I train him in striking. We roll a lot. He likes to roll, and he’s strong," Adel Altamimi said about Chris Pratt [via MMA Junkie]
More recently, Chris Pratt shared his prediction for the UFC 264 megafight between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier and correctly picked 'The Diamond' as the winner. In the video, Pratt had fake blood and mud covering his face to promote his movie, The Tomorrow War, which came out on Amazon Prime at the time.
Pratt was also in attendance at T-Mobile Arena when Khabib Nurmagomedov submitted Conor McGregor in their epic UFC 229 clash.
Kamaru Usman secures spectacular decision win over Colby Covington at UFC 268
After years of a heated feud, Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington finally met in their much-anticipated rematch inside the octagon at UFC 268. The two went the full five-round distance and Usman emerged victorious via unanimous decision in the end.
However, the best frame of the contest probably took place moments after the final bell, when Usman and Covington embraced and showed respect towards each other in a great show of sportsmanship.
Later on in the post-fight press conference, Kamaru Usman compared his bittersweet relationship with Colby Covington with that of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.