When UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman knocked out Gilbert Burns in the third round of UFC 258’s main event on Saturday night, the instant reaction wasn’t shock. No one is shocked when Usman wins, it’s all he does. And it wasn’t awe at his talents. We’ve had plenty of time over his five and a half undefeated years in the Octagon to be amazed by how dominant Usman is.
No, the instant reaction was to lean back, shake your head, and say to yourself: Goddamn, who on Earth is ever going to beat this guy?
Burns seemed like the last potential exit ramp before the type of amazing title run we haven’t seen at welterweight since Georges St-Pierre‘s heyday. The Brazilian had found an incredible new gear since moving up to 170 full-time in 2019, mixing world-class jiu-jitsu with big-time knockout power. And when Burns knocked the champion down with a right hook early in round one, it looked for a brief moment that the challenger might have derailed Usman’s inexorable march toward history.
One round later, Usman was dropping him with jabs. A few minutes after that, Usman was walking away a knockout winner. Now, Usman’s road to a historic reign looks that much clearer. The champion has beaten each of welterweight’s top four contenders: Burns, Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington since winning the belt, and Leon Edwards back in 2015, when they were both on their ways up.
At a division that has moved at a snail’s pace over the last few years, it seems hard to envision any of the current contenders posing a real threat to Usman. The champion is an incredible physical specimen, large and powerful for the division, and he made it to the top with overpowering wrestling ability. But against Burns, he showcased what might keep him at the top for a long time.
Usman didn’t win that fight by dominating positions like he did against Tyron Woodley or Masvidal. He won the fight with something of his that has always been underrated: the natural pop in his hands, something that is finally being harnessed since he started training with Trevor Wittman in Colorado last year. We saw flashes of it against Covington in late 2019, when Usman was handily outlanded on the feet but made every one of his punches count, breaking Covington’s jaw and ultimately knocking him out in the fifth round.
Against Burns, however, Usman displayed a more refined striking approach that ended up winning him the fight. His stand-up is still a work in progress and it helps that he has a good chin: he rallied incredibly well from being rocked in round one. In a pure striking battle against a dangerous stand-up fighter, Usman fought patiently and effectively behind the jab, keeping Burns’ advance at bay and doing serious damage throughout the second round. It was a very well-disguised and sudden jab that knocked Burns down to start the third, setting up Usman’s finishing flurry. Kamaru Usman, derided by some for years as a wall-and-staller, threw leather with a bad man and won by KO.
The development of Usman’s striking, and the appearance of that deadly jab, could be the biggest key towards his future dominance. If you squint, you can see the outline of what made GSP such a legendary welterweight champion. GSP is commonly regarded as the most effective user of the jab in the history of the sport, and mixed that with tremendous offensive wrestling and terrific natural athleticism and endurance. Doesn’t sound too different than the guy currently holding the same title.
GSP put all those traits together and became possibly the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, and when Usman puts all of it together, like he flashed against Burns, he seems pretty unbeatable himself. As previously noted, he’s beaten everyone near the top, and we’re already talking rematches: Usman expressed his interest in a rematch with Masvidal, which he would surely dominate, while the real fight to make would be with the winner of Covington and Edwards, both of whom have already lost to Usman.
The latter option would at least be interesting. Covington’s high work rate gave Usman some trouble when they fought in 2019, and he came closer than anyone to beating the champion. Usman was clearly the better man when he met Edwards in Dec. 2015 – not so coincidentally, the last time Edwards has been beaten – but both are different fighters today than they were five years ago.
But with the leaps and bounds Usman has shown in his striking ability, his tools may be coalescing into a package that no one at 170 is equipped to beat. Stephen Thompson‘s counter-striking and exceptional movement are still incredibly difficult to overcome, but he’s 38 years old and it’s likely Usman simply bowls him over. Michael Chiesa can provide something of a mirror for Usman’s size and offensive grappling ability, but Usman is much stronger and could likely bust him up on the feet. Khamzat Chimaev arrived in 2020 as the hot young talent who seemingly could take on the world, but his career is currently being waylaid by serious COVID-19 symptoms that could affect him direly in the future.
Above it all, Usman looks like an unclimbable mountain, an already-dominant champion who is somehow getting better at 33 years old. Usman already tied GSP’s record of 13 straight UFC welterweight wins on Saturday – a few more records may go down before he’s done.
The Big Fight 