Kamaru Usman is one of the most self-aware men in sports. He tried to ignore the whispers, but they were getting louder — questions about whether he was done as a legitimate UFC title contender.
He winced when I reminded him before the fight that it had been more than 1,300 days since his last victory, a truth that clearly cut deeper than he would let on.
On Saturday in Atlanta, the former welterweight champion fought as if the glory days weren’t behind him, but just waiting to be reclaimed.
He took Joaquin Buckley down one minute into the bout and delivered a master class for nearly 25 minutes, snapping a three-fight losing streak with a dominant unanimous decision win.
Those losses weren’t blowouts — a Hail Mary head kick from Leon Edwards in the final minute cost him the belt in 2022, followed by two razor-thin majority decisions — but they still counted, and for many, they cast doubt.
Buckley entered riding a six-fight win streak and closed as a 2-to-1 favorite. But Usman silenced that narrative early with a perfectly timed takedown that planted Buckley on his back. He opened a cut by Buckley’s right eye with his ground-and-pound, building a huge lead that Buckley was unable to overcome.
The pattern was almost rhythmic — Usman landed takedowns at 1:00, 2:00, 2:30 and 3:00 of the first four rounds, grinding Buckley down with clinical precision.
By the fifth, Usman had absorbed Buckley’s best attempts and outlasted his late surge, even as the crowd buzzed for another miracle finish.
There wasn’t one.
“I needed to get that monkey off my back,” Usman said of the losing streak. “I know I’m still able to do this at the highest level. Sometimes when you’re going up against a young, hungry guy like that, [who is] very talented and very aggressive, you’ve got to pull out the skills and use your experience.
“That’s what I did tonight. I wanted to open up a little more, but that comes with time. I feel so good.”
Before the fight, Usman was visited in the locker room by former boxing heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, and the timing was poetic.
When I spoke to Usman on Tuesday, I asked if he saw parallels between where he is now and where Holyfield was in 1996, heading into the first Mike Tyson fight — when many were yelling Holyfield was done.
Tyson was a 25-1 favorite in that first fight and many so-called experts feared for Holyfield’s safety. Holyfield stopped him in the 11th of a dominant performance.
He then beat Tyson a second time in a rematch en route to one of the greatest second acts in combat sports history.
After what he did on Saturday, Usman seems poised to do the same. He delivered a dominant big-time performance against Buckley that harkened back to the days when he won 19 in a row, including six consecutive wins in UFC title fights.
“I put in so much work — so, so much work — to get back here,” Usman said. “Everyone knows what to expect from me and what I’m capable of doing.”
He added that he felt some observers “started to sleep on my ability,” after his losses.
Anyone who saw that and didn’t come away thinking Usman is entirely capable of another title reign is either a hater or doesn’t know the sport.
He said he wants the winner of the title fight between new champion Jack Della Maddalena and pound-for-pound king Islam Makhachev, which isn’t on the schedule yet but will be sometime in the final four months of 2025.
Based on what we saw against Buckley, he’s no nostalgia act — he’s yet again a legitimate welterweight contender.
His wrestling was the difference Saturday, but Usman insists he’s far from one-dimensional.
“I’ve got all the skills in the world,” he said. “I can take you down and beat you up or stand with you and knock you out.”
For the first time in years, that doesn’t sound like a reminder.
It sounds like a warning.
Brett Davis/Imagine Images
Kamaru Usman takes Joaquin Buckley down in their welterweight fight on Saturday in Atlanta.