- Kamaru Usman admitted that he made a mistake during fight with Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294
- “The Nigerian Nightmare” is positive he could still turn things around and become champion again
Kamaru Usman did not get the result he wanted and suffered a decision loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294. Nevertheless, “The Nigerian Nightmare” remains optimistic about getting back to his winning ways and becoming a champion once again.
A miscalculation
Speaking to a group of reporters, including TNT Sports, Usman admitted that he made a crucial mistake of starting out slow as it wasn’t a five-rounder fight. However, the former welterweight champ is certain that if it was a five-round fight, the outcome would’ve been different.
“It took me some time but you know that’s the difference in a three-round fight, you can’t start slow like that… it’s not a five-rounder where you have time to work yourself back in the fight so that was my miscalculation… So it’s always disappointing… I don’t like to go out like that,” Usman reflected.
“Five round, I think I stop him,” he added.
Khamzat Chimaev takes the majority decision!!
He leaves #UFC294 with the victory over Kamaru Usman at #UFC294 pic.twitter.com/EjxZT6XiBA
— UFC (@ufc) October 21, 2023
Kamaru needs to trust himself and his team
Usman further pointed out that losing to a fighter like Chimaev is terrible but he learned a lot from it. For “The Nigerian Nightmare,” he realized that he needs to “trust” himself and his team again and go back to how they do things back when he was still at the top.
More importantly, Usman wants to remind everybody that his career is far from over.
“If there’s anything that I learned about myself tonight and it’s I have to trust myself again. You fall into a place where you start to kind of question and doubt yourself a little bit and if anything that I prove to myself tonight is that I need to trust myself I need to get back to my roots, get working again and I do definitely think I can be champion [again],” Usman explained.
“You drop two fights two razor close fights like that to Leon Edwards you know and I haven’t lost in such a long time, you start to kind of question yourself a little bit and so you start to kind of question your coaches, all these different things but you know if one thing that I learn about tonight is trust that you know these are my support system that aided me and helping me get to where I did so I just got to trust that and and I’ll be back there. I’m not done,” he emphasized.
The loss to Chimaev is Usman’s third consecutive defeat since being dethroned by Leon Edwards at UFC 278. As it stands, Usman is still the No. 1 welterweight contender but what’s next for him is still up in the air.
Check out Usman’s full interview below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGT-4vl_y_o
