Kamaru Usman opens up about triumphant UFC return against Joaquin Buckley, says only a "select few" knew what he had to battle through
Kamaru Usman recently opened up about his triumphant return at UFC Atlanta, where he earned an impressive unanimous decision win over Joaquin Buckley. It was a vintage performance from Usman, who showed that he is still very much a threat in the welterweight division.
Usman was able to utilize his strengths in wrestling and secure several takedowns, and later mixed in his effective striking to prevail over Buckley.
With the win, 'The Nigerian Nightmare' snapped his three-fight losing skid that included back-to-back losses to Leon Edwards and a majority decision loss to Khamzat Chimaev in a middleweight bout on short notice in 2023.
In the latest episode of his Pound 4 Pound podcast, Usman reacted to his performance following a two-year layoff. The former welterweight champion expressed his gratitude for being able to return and pick up a win over a top-ranked opponent and mentioned that his preparation was challenging. He said:
"People forget that I can wrestle... The striking, people got to see a lot more of that. It was because, hey, you respect the wrestling, so then you know I have to try to fight with this man. The blatant disregard for that was kind of crazy to me... I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to step back in there. Just a select few know kind of what I had to battle through the last couple of years just to even build my body back up just to get back in there."
Check out Kamaru Usman's comments below:
Kamaru Usman was confident of his win at UFC Atlanta
Ahead of his fight against Joaquin Buckley, Kamaru Usman opened up on whether he would be able to shake the ring rust off following his nearly two-year absence.
Usman mentioned that he believes the work he did during his training camp would be enough for him to beat Buckley. He said:
"Yeah, absolutely. That's a thing that we could possibly believe. The time that you didn't spend inside that octagon if you were sitting the whole time. Unfortunately for everybody, I wasn't sitting the whole time. I was still doing stuff, getting things in that I needed to get in in order to progress and stay at the level that I've been at."
Check out Kamaru Usman's comments below: