Khamzat Chimaev fears his UFC rival Kamaru Usman will never recover from his brutal knockout loss to Leon Edwards.
Usman lost his welterweight title when he was knocked out with a head kick from Edwards with less than a minute left in their title fight last month. The defeat put an end to Usman's 20-fight unbeaten run and saw him lose his status as the UFC's pound-for-pound No.1 fighter.
Two weeks on from the fight, Usman is in good health and insists a weight has been lifted off his shoulders after suffering his first UFC loss. 'The Nigerian Nightmare' compared being knocked out to taking a 20-minute nap and said he had no idea why he was in an ambulance after the fight. Chimaev fears that after the devastating knockout, Usman will never be the same quality of fighter again.
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“I learned a lot of things about that fight," Chimaev told ESPN. "Usman was too much high up: ‘I’m gonna fight with Canelo,’ and he got shot. It was a crazy fight, good fight. [Usman] wasn’t being focused I don’t think he’ll be the same guy again in the mind. We’ve seen a lot of champions thinking no one can beat them, because he defend so many times, now [he’s]unbeatable and bam, somebody knock you out. Now you know you’re human, as well.”
Edwards wants to make the first defence of his title at a stadium in the UK, with a potential trilogy fight against Usman seeming plausible. Usman will have to spend a considerable amount of time on the sidelines to recover from the knockout before he is to start thinking about training again.
Chimaev's words echo that of UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov, who also worries that his close friend Usman may not be the same fighter again. "I believe he can beat Leon Edwards, but after such a knockout a lot of people don't recover. It will be interesting to see, they are one and one now," he told reporters."
"I was surprised you could even say a little bit upset because I have a good friendship with Kamaru. Of course it was hard to watch the best fighter in the world, which he is right now, get knocked out severely with 50 seconds remaining in the fight. For a second it all went wrong, [Kamaru] put his hand in the wrong place. Your lights can go out if the proper defence is not in place. You can wake up in the locker room and it's over."
