Even if he is among the greatest welterweight fighters in MMA history, Kamaru Usman is human and experiences vulnerability. Before his fight with Khamzat Chimaev, Usman had some self-doubts following his defeat by Leon Edwards for the 170-pound UFC title.
On their podcast Pound 4 Pound, hosts Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo discuss this subject with multi-division UFC championship challenger Chael Sonnen.
Kamaru Usman talks about Khamzat Chimaev
When asked if he was having doubts about himself leading into the ‘Borz’ fight, Usman said:
“It’s like you’re looking at comments and you see 99 comments that say you’re the greatest. It’s just like wrestling, we don’t remember all the people we beat. But you remember those tough ones in the finals that you lost. It’s kind of one of those situations where I haven’t heard that in a while. Of course coming off of losing my title.
“It’s like you want to assess everything. Do I change? Do I do this? Do I do that? Am I really that guy? Am I not that guy? Am I big enough? Am I not big enough? Yes, I asked for more time with the UFC but they didn’t really give it to me. Now I have nine days, what do I do? So I was carrying a little bit of that.”
Before going into the cage in August 2022, Kamaru Usman had successfully defended his UFC title five times in a row. He was facing Leon Edwards in a rematch after Usman had defeated him in their first encounter. It looked like Usman was going to defeat “Rocky” once more, but Edwards took the title with a famous head kick knockout in the last round.
At UFC 286 the 36-year-old was scheduled to square off against Edwards in a rematch. Even though Usman was not able to complete, in March 2023 he lost by majority decision and ultimately lost the series against Edwards.
The Nigerian then participated in the UFC 294 clash against Chimaev in October. By a majority decision, Usman lost, extending his run of defeats to three games. However, Usman is rightfully considered by many to be the greatest successful welterweight in UFC history, surpassing even Georges St. Pierre in that sense.
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