Matt Serra believes Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington could’ve played out longer than it did.

Usman vs. Covington headlined UFC 245 earlier this month. Usman put the UFC welterweight gold on the line inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. In a back-and-forth battle, “The Nigerian Nightmare” ended up scoring the fifth-round TKO victory. Covington was quick to protest the stoppage to referee Marc Goddard.

On the latest edition of the UFC Unfiltered podcast, Serra expressed his belief that Usman vs. Covington was stopped too soon.

“I felt that was definitely a little premature,” Serra said of the Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington stoppage. “F*ck, the guy’s fighting almost 10 minutes with a broken jaw. He went down, he’s moving his head, he’s covering up. Why? He gets up, first thing he says is, ‘what are you doing?’ And listen I really feel weird being the guy to go to bat for Colby cause I don’t like the guy.”

The former UFC welterweight champion went on to say that there was too much on the line for a stoppage like that to be acceptable.

“I feel that Usman would’ve got the decision,” Serra continued when discussing the Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington finish. “So let him get the decision or see what else happens. I can’t just look at that stoppage and say, ‘yeah that was good.’ There might have been worse ones but it was pretty bad. It was pretty bad for what was at stake there.”

Time will tell what’s next for Usman and Covington. Many believe the two best options for Usman’s next title defense are Jorge Masvidal and Leon Edwards. Meanwhile, many have expressed interest in seeing a grudge match between Covington and Tyron Woodley given their tumultuous history.

What did you make of the Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington stoppage?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 12/23/2019.