Former UFC welterweight champ Kamaru Usman (20-3) has come to terms with his two losses against Leon Edwards. The former champion was just 60 seconds away from his sixth successful title defense last August when he was caught with the perfect head kick that knocked him out cold.
That mistake cost him his welterweight title and cost him the opportunity to tie Anderson Silva’s all time win streak inside the octagon. Because Usman was such a dominant champion and the fact that he had already defeated Edwards once before, the UFC immediately ran things back.
The two had their rematch in March in front of a sold out crowd in London. The fight was competitive, but Edwards was getting the better of things throughout. I personally had the fight 3-2 for Edwards, but with a point deduction, I scored the fight a draw as did one of the judges.
However, the other two judges had things 4-1 which gave Edwards the majority decision win. While Usman believes he did enough to win, he told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that he accepted the loss in the cage and he has no bad feelings regarding the result.
Former UFC champ eyes next opponent
In his interview with Okamoto, Usman also talked about falling in love with the sport of MMA. He said that he wasn’t right before the third Edwards fight and he’s getting back to the hunger levels that drove him to be The Nigerian Nightmare that reigned over the welterweight division.
In terms of what’s next, Usman is targeting a fight that’ll get him right back to the title. When asked by Okamoto, Usman said a couple of names, but he really focused on one man in particular. That man is Khamzat Chimaev (12-0).
Chimaev was being fast-tracked for a welterweight title shot during his rise to the top with the promotion. However, a horrific weight miss at UFC 279 caused all parties involved to suggest a move up to middleweight. That said, Chimaev still doesn’t have an opponent for his next fight and it’s not set in stone that he’ll fight at middleweight.
If he convinces the promotion to let him fight at 170 again, I love the idea of him and Usman fighting next. Chimaev chirped back on Twitter essentially saying that he’d love to beat Usman into retirement. Time will tell what the promotion decides to do, but I personally love this fight.