Kamaru Usman was knocked out for the first time in his career in brutal fashion against Leon Edwards at UFC 278 last year. 'The Nigerian Nightmare' was caught with a perfectly executed head kick that left him totally unconscious. He will now face Edwards once again in the main event of UFC 286 this weekend.
Ahead of the title bout, Usman sat down with Hall of Famer Michael Bisping to discuss his title loss. The pair also shared light-hearted stories about what it felt like to get knocked out cold at a UFC event.
'The Count' was famously KO'd by Dan Henderson at UFC 100 in one of the most chilling fight-ending sequences in promotional history. Bisping stated that he had no memory of the fight. He then admitted that the only reason he knew he had lost was because he was in an ambulance alongside Frank Mir:
"I was the exact same way. I was in the back of an ambulance with Frank Mir, he'd just been beaten up by Brock Lesnar, and I was sitting in the back of [the ambulance] and I just went, 'F**K! Yeah, I get it. I remember! I remember what's happened. Damn!'"
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Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards are 1-1 heading into their trilogy fight this weekend. In his second UFC bout, which took place in 2015, 'The Nigerian Nightmare' defeated Edwards via a unanimous decision. However, 'Rocky' was able to even the score when he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat at UFC 278, meaning it all comes down to the final bout of their trilogy at UFC 286.
Alexander Volkanovski predicts Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman - "It's gonna be a lot closer"
Leon Edwards will attempt to defend his welterweight title for the first time against Kamaru Usman in the main event of UFC 286 this weekend.
Current featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski recently shared his predictions for the bout on his YouTube channel. 'The Great' believes that the highly-anticipated trilogy fight will be much closer than their previous bout.
Despite Edwards' victory over Kamaru Usman at UFC 278, he was soundly dominated for most of the fight. 'Rocky' was down 3-1 on the judges' scorecards heading into round five and needed a stoppage to secure the win.
On his podcast, Volkanovski discussed the third bout and said:
"Leon is going to be much better this time, so it's gonna be a lot closer fight the whole way through. Now you know that he's got the knockout power, I feel like there's gonna be a much different fight. I'm like 50/50 on this one, Usman really needs to rely on Edwards tiring. But then [Usman] could get caught that whole time... I'm gonna probably lean towards Leon."
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