After an dominant win from Kamaru Usman, he has shown to be an unbeatable fighter. In his fight against Burns, he showed to have improved even more and that is coming from a fighter who rarely loses a round. Even Cormier thinks as great as Usman is as a Champion, he still feels like there is still lack of respect for the Welterweight Champion.”
There are a lot of great attributes on why Usman is the current champion. The first would be his mentality, he has said that his mind is the strongest in the division and is the reason that beats everyone. He is always eager to learn and is always hungry, the same trait that GSP had when he was a champion.
Both of them have the eagerness to improve even after a dominant win. Rather than celebrate the win, they go back to the drawing boards and correct their mistakes. After Usman’s win against Masvidal where he won all the rounds, he still said that he needs to improve more since he felt uncomfortable.
In the video, you can see GSP never stops learning even after a dominant win. It was his fight against Dan Hardy and clearly shows why GSP was a champion for a long time. That type of mentality creates champions.
The next great attribute of Usman was his composure. Prior to the Burns fight, we have not yet seen Usman face adversity because of his dominance. In the opening round, he got clipped with a right hook but he did not panic and stayed composed throughout the fight, meanwhile Burns blamed his loss because of his eagerness to finish the fight early.
Even in the Burns fight, when he got Burns hurt, he never rushed for the kill. Although he sensed it and made sure Burns will not get a breather, Usman chose to stay composed and pick his shots wisely and in turn led to a great finish. He also showed this type of fight in the fifth round of his fight against Colby Covington.
With an added next level jab from Usman, he might be the most well rounded fighter in the division. Prior to becoming a champion, what made Usman dominant was his high level wrestling but some thought that his stand up game would be his only weakness.
Under his new coach Trevor Wittman, he developed a great striking skill that even a jab alone could win the fight. Now that he has a great jab it is difficult for his future opponents to find a way to beat him. His striking and wrestling is top notch and his takedown defense is one of the best in the division.
We all know Khabib might be the greatest grappler in UFC history, but for Usman to share a record with Khabib in the grappling department shows how great his grappling is as well.
Now that's a crazy stat. pic.twitter.com/X4pbUk0NUA
— SuhaiLMAO (@LamebredFighter) February 13, 2021
Some would say that due to Usman carrying a lot of muscles, he might get tired in the later rounds. He proved the doubters wrong as Usman could go all five rounds without getting tired. Colby Covington is known as the Cardio King because he could not get tired and puts endless pressure in his opponents, but Usman did not even slow down against Covington and it was already a five round fight.
Well seeing as how I’m the only guy in the top 5 that Usman hasn’t fought yet….I guess I’m next…makes sense right? Great performance @USMAN84kg ! #ufc258
— Stephen Thompson (@WonderboyMMA) February 14, 2021
It just shows that Usman might really have no weakness. One interesting matchup would be to fight Stephen Thompson just because the fans have not seen it yet. Thompson is a striking specialist that has great takedown defense, could his karate break through Usman’s style of fighting or will Usman just plain out dominate?