Edwards is ready to defend his world title at UFC 296Credit: Getty Images – Getty

Edwards, who is undefeated in the Octagon since 2015, will be involved in his first fight since his successive victories over Kamaru Usman.

Covington hasn’t fought since beating Jorge Masvidal over five rounds at UFC 272 in March 2022.

The American earned his third title shot by weighing in as the backup fighter ahead of Edwards’ majority-decision victory against Usman at UFC 286 and impressing Dana White in the process.

Covington, whose previous two attempts at capturing UFC gold came in losing efforts to ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’, has been on a collision course with Edwards for years.

Edwards vs Covington: Date and how to follow

UFC 296 will take place on Saturday, December 16.

The action is being held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The preliminary card will get underway around 11:30pm UK time before the main card at 2am, with the main event then around 5am.

The prelims are set to be broadcast live on the UFC Fight Pass and fans can sign up to the pass here.

And then the main card will be shown live on TNT Sports in the UK. Full details on how to watch the event can be found here.

Covington shocked everyone when he weighed in ahead of UFC 286Credit: GettyUFC 296: Fight card 

Subject to change

Main card

• MAIN EVENT: Leon Edwards vs Colby Covington – for UFC welterweight title
• Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Royval – for UFC flyweight title
• Shavkat Rakhmonov vs Stephen Thompson
• Paddy Pimblett vs Tony Ferguson
• Vicente Luque vs Ian Machado Garry

Preliminary card

• Josh Emmett vs Bryce Mitchell
• Irene Aldana vs Karol Rosa
• Cody Garbrandt vs Brian Kelleher
• Casey O’Neill vs Ariane Lipski

Early preliminary card

• Alonzo Menifield vs Dustin Jacoby
• Tagir Ulanbekov vs Cody Durden
• Andre Fili vs Lucas Almeida
• Martin Buday vs Shamil Gaziev
• Randy Brown vs Muslim Salikhov

Edwards is coming off back-to-back wins over UsmanCredit: GettyEdwards vs Covington: What has been said?

UFC president Dana White said: “The champ hasn’t lost a fight in eight years and is coming off back-to-back wins over the greatest welterweight of all time – Kamaru Usman.

“He’s defending his title against Colby Covington, a relentless pressure fighter with unstoppable cardio.”

Edwards was previously incensed that Covington was deemed worthy of a third shot at winning UFC gold.

But now he is ready to silence the American who has been trash-talking ahead of the fight.

“I just want to fight him because I don’t like him so that will be even more fuel for me in training,” Edwards said.

“He’s an alright fighter – but look at his resume compared to my resume.

“He hasn’t beaten anyone in the top five, he’s fought people at the back end of their careers and his last five fights are win-lose-win-lose-win, it’s not consistent.”