Defending and newly crowned world champion of the UFC’s Welterweight showdown, Nigerian-American Kamaru Usman is expected in Nigeria after his gobsmacked win at the just concluded martial arts Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in the Welterweight division at the UFC APEX Center in Las Vegas, USA.
Kamaru Usman proved once again that he’s the best welterweight on the planet in a jaw-dropping performance in the UFC main event where he faced a former teammate, Gilbert Burns in what wasn’t the ideal scenario in friendship, showing there are no friends in the octagon. Usman once again proved his myrtle when he got opponent Burns on the ground and followed up with such a punishing barrage of strikes, that the referee Herb Dean, had no choice but to stop the contest with the end coming at just 34 seconds into the third round.
According to award-winning martial artiste: ‘This one was a tough one, very very tough one. It was a very, very tough one. First and foremost, you cannot discredit what Gilbert Burns has done in this division. We started together. He showed it tonight. But I said it, I’m the varsity guy. My fight IQ is different. I’m a whole other savage. From start to finish, I’m a whole other savage and he saw that tonight.”
After the fight ended, 33-year-old Usman embraced Burns, who had tears running down his face as he suffered a loss in his first attempt at becoming a UFC champion. Usman says reflectively: ‘When you step into my cage, we have to go to work. There were no friends in there. No friends at all. I am the best on the planet for a reason. You need to put some respect on my name.” The defending champion and family man through and through who doesn’t like to be away from his daughter Samirah, the centre of his being, said ‘I’m coming home soon baby’.
In winning this fight, the first-ever Nigerian-born champion in UFC has dispatched yet another top contender while cementing his spot with thirteen straight wins, as the undisputed UFC welterweight champion; making history as the longest ever holder of a win-streak in the Welterweight division.
