Kamaru Usman is back!
After nearly two years on the shelf, the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ stepped back inside the Octagon at UFC Atlanta and delivered a vintage performance, handily defeating Joaquin Buckley and snapping his three-fight losing skid.
Getting back into the win column is no easy task for a guy with notoriously bad knees, 25 career fights, and staring down the barrel of turning 40. Still, the former welterweight world champion made it look ridiculously easy. However, it was anything but.
“The battle’s never done. I mean, it’s never done,” Usman said during his post-fight interview. “It’s a mountain that you have to climb each and every time you get back in there. It’s difficult to get in there. I know people watch at home and just kind of talk [stuff] about fighters: ‘Oh, this fighter’s bad, this fighter’s this, this fight.’ It takes a lot to get in there. You have to respect each and every fighter who’s willing to put their life on the line to get in there.
“But each and every time you get in here, you’re going to battle that. That’s what I’m used to doing. Champions aren’t just—you don’t just wake up a champion. You’ve got to build yourself into being a champion. Like I said, I have a great support system, so we’re back up and we’re back climbing.”
Kamaru Usman is coming for all the gold
With the victory over Buckley, Usman is once again back in the welterweight title picture and aiming for a shot at the winner of Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev.
If he succeeds in reclaiming the 170-pound crown, it sounds like the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ is already planning to conquer another weight class.
