Leon Edwards will defend his welterweight championship against Colby Covington in the main event of two-title-fight UFC 296 on Saturday in Las Vegas (ESPN+ PPV main card at 10 p.m. ET, prelims on ESPN2/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. and early prelims on ESPN+ at 6 p.m.).
The other title bout at T-Mobile Arena features Alexandre Pantoja making the first defense of his flyweight belt against Brandon Royval.
Edwards (21-3, 1 NC) is unbeaten in his last 12 fights. The No. 4 fighter in ESPN's pound-for-pound rankings, Edwards last fought in March, beating former champ Kamaru Usman by majority decision.
Covington (17-3), who will be making his third title challenge after twice being unsuccessful against Usman, has not fought since beating Jorge Masvidal by unanimous decision in March 2022.
Pantoja (26-5) beat Brandon Moreno by split decision in July to win the title. He is No. 1 in the ESPN men's flyweight rankings. The seventh-ranked Royval (15-6) has won three in a row since a second-round submission loss to Pantoja in 2021.
ESPN's Marc Raimondi spoke to UFC welterweight Belal Muhammad, who is serving as a backup this weekend in case either main event fighter drops out, to get his perspective on the welterweight title fight and former two-time men's flyweight champion Brandon Moreno to get his thoughts on the co-main event. ESPN's betting experts Reed Kuhn and Ian Parker add their insights and analysis on the title fights and other intriguing bets they like on the card.
Editor's note: Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.