After losing against Leon Edwards, Kamaru Usman will be a different person in the opinion of Khamzat Chimaev,
At UFC 278, Leon Edwards stunned everyone by being the first person to defeat Kamaru Usman in the UFC not to mention he was also the first to knock out Usman. I
If Chimaev had beaten Nate Diaz this weekend, it would have very probably resulted in a matchup with Usman.
Speaking about the clash between Edwards and Usman, Chimaev told ESPN:
“It was a crazy fight, good fight. I learned a lot of things about that fight. It was funny to watch, [Usman] was too much high up.”
“I’m gonna fight with Canelo [Alvarez]’, and he got shot. He wasn’t focused and he said, ‘I’m always focused’, and a lot of things. ‘I want to make money’… Leon comes and shot his head, dropped the guy.”
“I don’t think he’ll be the same guy again. In the mind. We’ve seen a lot of champions thinking, ‘nobody can beat me’, because he defend so many times. ‘Now I’m unbeatable’, that kind of thing, and bam, somebody knock you out. Now you know you’re human, as well.”
Usman is anticipated to compete in a rematch against Edwards in order to recover the UFC belt. The trilogy is anticipated to happen in early 2023.
Kamaru Usman had previously revealed his goals if he had won at UFC 278.
Usman remarked,
“This was my roadmap. Beat Leon in the way that I wanted to and go to 205, beat Jiri Prochazka, defend with Jan, come back down, defend with Khamzat. And then, if Conor wanted to, or if Canelo at that point wanted to, do one and just sail off.”
Khabib Nurmagomedov and several UFC legends believe Usman may never fully recover from this defeat.
“I believe he can beat Leon Edwards, but after such a knockout a lot of people don’t recover. It will be interesting to see, they are one and one now,” he told reporters.
Usman went on to say that his current strategy is identical to his earlier one but includes an additional destination.
He stated: “So, I think I could deal with Jiri and Jan. Not saying they’re not great, they’re scary, they’re f**king big scary guys, which is kind of what makes it also tempting for me. It’s cause they are scary.”
“I have a new roadmap. Just a pit stop, I gotta run it back with Leon.”