Kamaru
Usman believes he could have done more in his short-notice
middleweight fight against Khamzat
Chimaev at
UFC 294.
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Usman put on a gritty performance against Chimaev in the
three-round co-main event headlined by a championship rematch
between Islam
Makhachev and Alexander
Volkanovski. However, Chimaev’s dominant wrestling and control
in Round 1 seemed to have set Usman back on the scorecards from the
very start.
The remaining rounds were extremely close. While Usman seemed to
have the striking advantage, Chimaev managed to display his
effective grappling skills throughout the bout. In the end, “Borz”
improved his impressive mixed martial arts record to 13-0 with a
majority decision victory against the former welterweight
champion.
Reflecting on his performance during the post-fight interview with
Megan Olivi, Usman was quick to criticize his inability to start
the fight strong.
“If anything that I can say I take away from tonight it’s that I
need to trust myself more, trust my coaches,” he said. “We’ll be
back. You know, coming off the couch in 10 days and fighting a
young hungry bull like that who’s big and strong and has had a year
and a half to really grow into this weight class and I didn’t and I
think I didn’t trust my shape. I’m a championship fighter, and you
can’t start slow like that. I say give me a couple of extra rounds,
I think the world knows what that result might be.”
Usman certainly didn’t have adequate time to prepare for a
specialist like Chimaev. However, the same could be said for
“Borz,” who was initially slated to face Paulo Costa
in Abu Dhabi.
Usman is now on a three-fight losing skid, with two of those losses
coming in the form of majority decisions. Nevertheless, “The
Nigerian Nightmare” is far from done and will be looking to step
inside the Octagon sooner than later seemingly at middleweight once
again.
“It’s a tough one,” he said. “You know I’ll take a little bit of
time, just a little bit and I’m back in the gym. I don’t mind it. I
think he’s (Chimaev) going to fight for the title. I’ll take du
Plessis, co-main, UFC 300. Why not?”