Kamaru Usman did not let his UFC 235 welterweight title shot go to waste. For five rounds, the streaking challenger took the fight to the long-time champion Tyron Woodley, ultimately earning a unanimous decision win — and the belt — as a result.

Now that he’s the champion, Usman would seem to have a plethora of options for his first title defense. There’s a potential rematch with Woodley. There’s a showdown with fellow wrestling standout Ben Askren. And of course, there’s a grudge match with Colby Covington.

Speaking at the UFC 235 post-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White cleared up the situation. He explained that first shot at Kamaru Usman will go to the always polarizing Colby Covington, who was in the crowd at UFC 235, getting up to his usual shenanigans.

“There was a lot of ruckus going on over there in [Covington’s] area,” White stated (transcript via MMA Fighting). “He almost got into it with mama Woodley at one point and everything else. That was like the third time I’d gone over to him that night.

“So I just told him, ‘Listen, you’re going to get this title shot. Don’t f*ck this up. Just relax. You and all your guys relax. If anything goes down, let our people handle it, and we’re going to take you in the back in a little while here and do some interviews.’ That’s all I said to him.”

Dana White was then asked to confirm that Colby Covington is indeed getting the first crack at the new champ Kamaru Usman.

“Yeah,” he responded.

Who do you think will come out on top in a fight between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 3/3/2019.