The Nigerian Nightmare just showed his evolved striking with his fight against Gilbert Burns. Usman showed a piston like jab that is so powerful that it could knock Burns down. Most haters would say that Usman is a boring fighter and that only stalls time but in this fight he showed that he could bang against someone as good as Burns.
In the first round, Usman faced an adversity where he got a flash knocked by a counter right that rocked Usman.
He was wobbled in a little and need a bit of recovery time, luckily he got it. When Burns slipped from his kick, he tried to bait Usman into going to the ground but Usman played it smart and just tried to kick and punch Burns just to have action in the fight.
Meanwhile Burns chose to bicycle kick Usman, but in the end made Usman recover from the initial barrage. It may haunt Burn’s life as it may have been critical to the fight. There was even a moment that Usman landed a great body shot that made Burns think of getting up instead.
In the second round, Usman showed that his jab has improved tremendously. It was landing and up until where he clipped Burns that got him stunned, it was the beginning of the end for Burns. He mainly focused on survival after that exchange. Burns survived the second round but barely.
The third round was where Burns got stopped, but it was later revealed how Usman’s standup really improved. The way he knocked out Burns was because he switched from Orthodox to Southpaw which in turn put his power(right) on the jab. When the jab landed, Burns was finished, so a couple of ground and pounds made the Herb Dean stop the fight.
Usman showed that he is still levels above the welterweight contenders. Considering how stacked the welterweight division is right now, Usman has beaten top 1 to top 5 contenders which is really impressive and a rare thing for a champion to do. Fans need to appreciate how talented and dominant Usman is as a champion. Even Cormier said after the win, that Usman is still an underrated champion.
After the fight, Usman and Burns released a lot of emotions because of their history as teammates. It was hard for both fighters to fight since they were close friends but they had no choice, there can only be one champion. At the end of the day, it is all part of the sport.
Usman proceeds to call out Masvidal for a rematch, he wants to prove that even Masvidal with a full camp, he will still remain victorious. It was also worth noting that Usman had a broken nose two weeks before his fight against Masvidal.
Props should given to Trevor Wittman, he may be one of the best trainer of all time. He improved Usman’s striking so well and we may see Usman be a champion for a long time. Usman has all the tools right now, from the standup, endurance and wrestling.
He broke GSP’s win record in the UFC so will we see another champion who will reign the welterweight division as great as GSP did in the past?
