Kamaru Usman has responded to Belal Muhammad dethroning Leon Edwards at UFC 304.
UFC 304 took place last Saturday, July 27th at Co-op Live in Manchester, England.
The main event featured a welterweight matchup between current champion Leon Edwards (22-4 MMA) and Belal Muhammad (24-3 MMA).
As a result, Muhammad defeated “Rocky” by unanimous decision and won the welterweight belt.
Kamaru Usman gave his thoughts on the fight during a recent episode of the “Pound 4 Pound” podcast.
“I fought Leon three times. Most of those fights, Leon had his back against the cage. Well, not that he had his back, I had him against the cage. I pressured him, pressured him, pressured him, taking away his space. Leon doesn't necessarily know how to fight when you take away his space. He wants to create space, so he backs up. And when he backs up, he then puts himself against the cage.”
Usman has fought Edwards three times, with Usman winning by unanimous decision in December 2015, Edwards winning by knockout at UFC 278 in August 2022, and finally “Rocky” defeating Usman again by majority decision at UFC 286 in March 2023.
The former welterweight champion continued:
“Now, when you fight someone like me, against someone like Belal Muhammad, who can change levels, this is what happens: I change levels, I wrap my arms around his legs and I take him down every time. I did that in most of my fights, but Leon got smarter over time and understood, 'I can use the cage to my advantage and get up, I can maintain my position and make it harder for him to take me down,' and he did that.”
The “Nigerian Nightmare” concluded with this (h/t MMANews):
“But it seemed like he was countering what I was doing, which was to push him against the fence and then use the fence to get up and stay upright and take him down. But then comes Belal Muhammad's counter, or what I'd call a counter-counter. He understands, 'Hey, he's using the fence well to get up, so when he gets up, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to change levels again and either take him down on his head or take him down on his back again,' and it was textbook action.”
Do you agree with Kamaru Usman's analogy to the Edwards vs Muhammad fight?
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