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Kamaru Usman put on a fairly dominant performance to successfully defend his title against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 251 last July. “The Nigerian Nightmare” won by unanimous decision, with two judges scoring him 50-45 and one judge scoring him 49-46.
Last week, Usman recorded with ESPN to reveal he took the fight with a broken nose. As he explained to Brett Okamoto, this happened during one of the fighting sessions during the camp.
“Two weeks ago, broken,” he says. “A lot of people haven’t had a broken nose. When something approaches your face, you try to defend yourself and not get your nose touched. There are a few guys here who are hitting pretty hard. We can blame that one on Carrington Banks and Justin Gaethje.
After going through a period of self-criticism, Usman says he wants another go-around with “Gamebred.” This time, he wants to end the fight in a much more decisive way.
“I was unhappy because as much as I put into the preparation for the fights, I was basically on autopilot for this fight,” he said. “A lot of things played a part in this fight. … I am much better than that. I have a lot more tools and skills to display than what I have shown because there I beat him with things that I have been doing for five years.
“It’s me against me over there. So, there is a potential for this fight to happen again if he works on it himself, but I want to do it again because I want to put an exclamation on it. I want to finish it. I want to impress myself. “
Usman will first have to take on his next challenge in the form of ex-teammate Gilbert Burns. The two will headlining UFC 258 on February 13 at UFC APEX in Las Vegas.
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