UFC 294 was an incredible event that took the fans out of their seats while watching. It was a thrilling event but the fight of the co-main event went on till the last. Also, it was one of the most entertaining ones. It was the fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Kumaru Usman. The fight ended in a majority decision win for Khamzat, but Usman put up a good competition.
On the one hand, ‘Borz’ added one more win to his now 14-fight undefeated streak. On the other hand, Usman was on the losing side and he looked emotional after the fight. He is considered to be the ‘greatest welterweight of all time’, but he came into this fight on very short notice. After Paulo Costa pulled out at the very last second due to injury. Usman was announced as the new opponent of Khamzat two weeks before the event.
EMOTIONAL KAMARU USMAN
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Respect for taking the fight on short notice…you’ll be back 👊@USMAN84kg I @MeganOlivi #UFC294 pic.twitter.com/ABGxkYgoWJ— FightBuzz (@Fightbuzz1) October 22, 2023
Recently, Jorge Masvidal, the former American professional MMA fighter gave an interview where he talked about Kumaru Usman. He explained one of his encounters with Usman, the day before Usman was announced as the new opponent of Khamzat for UFC 294. Furthermore, he also said, “So I just wanna say if that guy has like 5-6 weeks to prepare for Chimaev, he takes him out. Guaranteed! Like he knocks his a** dead.”
It would not be wrong to say that ‘the Nigerian Nightmare’ did have very little time to prepare for his fight. He was only given 11 days to prepare for the fight. There is no denying that Usman is a great fighter and if probably given more time, the result could have been different.
Jorge Masvidal saw Kamaru Usman the day before he got the call to fight Khamzat Chimaev. pic.twitter.com/KmkQOAhp1y
— Alex Behunin (@AlexBehunin) October 26, 2023
In fact, it was a closely fought contest and it never looked like Khamzat was dominating in the entirety of the fight. Even though Khamzat did show his insane grappling skills. It still does not mean that if given the proper time to prepare, Khamzat would have definitely won.
Kamaru Usman regrets not accepting 5 rounds against Khamzat Chimaev
In an interview with TNT Sports, Kamaru Usman revealed that the UFC had offered him a 5-round fight with Khamzat. He himself did not accept the 5-round fight and instead agreed to a 3-round fight with Khamzat. However, he went on to say after the fight that had it been a 5-round fight, the result would have been different.
Furthermore, Usman added that he had a very slow start to the fight and he lost the first round really easily. Due to the fight being only 3 rounds, it was difficult for him to recover. If the fight was 5-rounds he would have had more rounds to get the stability in the fight and possibly neutralize Khamzat in the subsequent rounds.
Kamaru Usman and Khamzat Chimaev will both go on their own ways from here. Both of them are strong competitors and will look to fight again in the coming months. No one can take away both the fighters fighting spirits and their dedication to the sport. It will be an interesting rematch if it does ever happen in the future.
