Outside Source
Kamaru Usman still remembers when it hit him that he lost the welterweight belt. | Getty/UFC
Kamaru Usman’s knockout loss against Leon Edwards felt like a computer rebooting.
Usman looked to defend his welterweight title for the sixth time against Edwards at UFC 278 in 2022. “The Nigerian Nightmare” dominated Edwards for majority of the fight and was on his way to a lopsided decision win. However, “Rocky” changed the script by knocking Usman out cold with a brutal head kick with less than a minute left in the fight.
Usman recalls being in his senses as the result was announced and even afterwards when he met his family. The former champ then visited the hospital with his manager, Ali Abdelaziz. When the paramedics were asking Usman questions, his competitive side wanted to get every answer right and then some more. Usman correctly recalled the day, date and venue. When Usman remembered the UFC pay-per-view number, it struck him afresh that he had been knocked out. A look at his manager confirmed the same. What made things worse was a clip of Usman’s daughter bawling after seeing her father get starched.
‘That’s When It Broke Me’
“It’s when your computer shuts down and reboots right away,” Usman told Daniel Cormier. “They announced him as the winner, I dap him up. I walk out, I’m dapping fans on the way out, ‘Alright, I’ll get him next time.’ See family, cut the gloves, I’m OK, I’m there… We go to the hospital. It’s me and my manager, Ali, and the paramedics back there. They ask their questions. She goes, ‘Do you know where you’re at?’… She asked me again, ‘Do you know what day it is?’ Competitive mode, I wanted to get the right answer out… ‘Yeah, of course. Saturday, August something, Salt Lake City, Utah. UFC 278…F—k’ If they’re asking me the question – ‘Nooo!’ Ali is there on his phone with this look on his face, I just knew… My daughter watches this brutal head kick. She’d never seen her dad down like that. So she’s screams hysterically and she’s turning. Someone clipped that, and I saw that, and that’s when it broke me.”
Usman (21-4) failed to regain his title in an immediate rematch against Edwards. Usman then suffered a majority decision loss in a one-off middleweight tilt against Khamzat Chimaev, which put him on a three fight slump. Usman has since rebounded with an upset win over Joaquin Buckley this past June.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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