Hot Tweets: Kamaru Usman’s stellar title defense, his future, and UFC Vegas 19

Kamaru Usman | Esther Lin, MMA Fighting This past weekend, Kamaru Usman turned in arguably the most impressive performance of his career with a third-round TKO over Gilbert Burns to retain his welterweight title. With the win, Usman has mostly cleaned out his division and so he turned to calling for a rematch with Jorge Masvidal, something it seems like the UFC is going to run with. So let’s talk about UFC 258, the aftermath, and even what’s to come tonight at UFC Vegas 19.

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[h=1]Usman vs. Burns[/h]I think Usman’s performance on Saturday - getting knocked down early, having to adjust to a fight he wasn’t anticipating, overcoming adversity - was the most impressive performance of his career. Now, that’s not to say it was the best performance (that would probably be the Colby Covington fight) but it was the most impressive because overcoming adversity with skill and heart is what make us fall in love with fighters; and also because I think it showed that Usman is on the decline.
That’s going to rub some people the wrong way, but I think it’s true. Usman came out looking flat against Burns and early on he had no real answer for the challenger’s speed. Burns honestly wasn’t doing anything super crafty, he was just zipping overhands and hooks into Usman’s head who wasn’t fast enough to avoid or deflect them. And even when he got hurt, Usman wasn’t able to mix things up against Burns, he just sort of had to survive, which he did admirably.
It shouldn’t really be a surprise that Usman is declining (fine, I’ll say “possibly”). He’s almost 34 years old which is traditionally around the age that physical gifts start dropping off. In Usman’s case, that may be an even sharper drop off as the champion has freely admitted his knees are bad. That’s why you don’t see a ton of shot takedowns from him, it’s largely work from the clinch. That’s why this win was so impressive. The fact that he was able to overcome the early knockdown by a more physically capable fighter and functionally just out-think Burns while having his head rattled is a testament to Usman’s durability and fight I.Q.
As for what’s next, well we will discuss the immediate future down below, but in broad strokes, the clock is now ticking on Usman. If he retired tomorrow, he’d be a Hall of Famer but certainly not the welterweight GOAT and frankly, probably not in the top three. He needs to stack as many wins as possible over the next few years because time moves quickly and people are already adapting to his game. In the not too distant future, someone is going to unseat him.

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[h=1]Usman, Masvidal, and The Ultimate Fighter[/h]As noted above, Usman needs to call for fights because the time is ticking on his career. Even if I’m wrong, and Usman isn’t physically declining right now, that time is coming soon. So calling out his next challenger makes a lot of sense. Now, should he have called for a rematch with Jorge Masvidal? Meh.
To be clear, from a practical standpoint, Masvidal makes by far the most sense. “Gamebred” offers the biggest-name opponent he can hope for and is a phenomenal matchup for him. The short-nature notice of their first bout robbed Usman and Masvidal of a full-scale media blitz to amp the fight up and now they can get that back, which means more eyeballs which means more money for Usman. All of that makes perfect sense and it’s objectively much better than when Tyron Woodley kept trying to fight Nate Diaz.
Unfortunately, from a sporting perspective this is probably the worst-case scenario. Even with a full training camp, Masvidal has little chance to unseat Usman and so that means we will be wasting one of the few prime Usman fights left on a rematch with a nearly ironclad outcome. Even worse, all signs seem to be pointing to Usman and Masvidal being the coaches for the return of The Ultimate Fighter, which means we’re not looking at another welterweight title fight until the fall at the earliest. From a fan’s perspective, that kind of sucks.
Personally, I’d have liked Usman to call out Stephen Thompson, mainly because Thompson is the only person in the top five of the division who he doesn’t have a win over and, I believe, presents the most interesting challenge to him. A win over “Wonderboy” would mean Usman had truly cleaned out the welterweight division (he’d have wins over 1-5, 7, and 8) which is an incredibly rare occurrence in MMA. It’s the win that I believe would do the most for his legacy and would possibly vault him up into the third place for top welterweights of all-time category.

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[h=1]Usman vs. GSP[/h]First off, I wrote about the UFC’s incessant need to compare Usman to Georges St-Pierre here and you should go read it. For those to lazy to do so, the short version is that comparing Usman to GSP, career-wise, is very dumb and shouldn’t be done, both because it’s insulting to what GSP has accomplished and because Usman deserves to have his achievements viewed on their own merit, not in relation to someone else’s.
But as far as comparing how the two would match up in a fight? That’s fair game, though sadly one I’m not particularly interested in. St-Pierre is pushing 40 and hasn’t competed in several years. Usman is the current welterweight champion. I strongly suspect that GSP would get out-jabbed, out-wrestled, and overall stymied by the younger man whose game mirrors his own, which in part is probably why GSP has stated unequivocally that he has no interest in that. Why would he?
If you’re talking about a hypothetical fight between Usman and peak GSP, I’m slightly more interested but I default to the baseline position that athletics improve over time and most elite fighters today would kick the crap out of the elite fighters of even a few years ago. So again, not a big selling point for me. Let’s just have the best fighters in the world face all the best guys in the world and enjoy that.

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[h=1]Khamzat Chimaev[/h]I’m going with once. Look people, COVID-19 is no joke. It’s sidelined Chimaev for months and that’s a dude who might not be a great fighter (we genuinely have no idea if he’s actually great or just had a good run) but is obviously a sturdy man. They’re going to need to accept that Chimaev needs to take some time to recover. That in and of itself could be awhile but then he also will need a training camp and opponent. My best guess is that we won’t see Chimaev again until late summer and even that seems a touch optimistic. If an injury happens, or it takes Chimaev even longer to shake this thing, then we could be looking at the fall or winter. I certainly hope not because Chimaev was undeniably a hoot last year but at this point, I’m not banking on anything.

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[h=1]Derek Brunson vs. Kevin Holland[/h]Speaking of 2020 Fighter of the Year nominees.
If Holland wins, he won’t fight for the title, mostly because Israel Adesanya is busy with a trip up to 205, but he will get himself one step away and he will absolutely deserve it. Derek Brunson may have an up and down record, but he’s not a journeyman. Brunson has fought the best in the division and beaten some of them. Yes, he’s mostly lost to those people but there’s also a reason he’s ranked in the top-10 and it’s not just that middleweight is kind of a bad division. Brunson is going to be the best opponent Holland has faced besides Thiago Santos and a win for either man should grant them a title eliminator.

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[h=1]Curtis Blaydes vs. Derrick Lewis[/h]By “the winner of Blaydes/Lewis” you mean Curtis Blaydes and no, he will not wait.
I say this confidently not just Blaydes has directly said as much but because, if he waits, he will be waiting for well over a year. Next month, Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou will rematch. If Miocic wins, he’ll fight Jon Jones in like, December. If Ngannou wins, he’ll fight Jon Jones probably in early fall. In either scenario, the EARLIEST that Blaydes could challenge for the title would be beginning of next year but far more likely that title fight wouldn’t happen until the summer, if it even happens at all.
I’m gonna go on the record right now and say that if Jon Jones wins the heavyweight title, there is no shot in hell that he fights Curtis Blaydes. After all, why would he want to? Blaydes is not a beloved figure in the division and it’s arguably the toughest fight for Jones. Instead, he can retire again, call for a fight against a legend like Overeem or just run it back with Ngannou or Miocic (or fight whoever loses their fight). All of those options are far better for Jones than fighting Curtis Blaydes and it doesn’t even take into account the most likely fight of all: Israel Adesanya.
If Adesanya wins the light heavyweight belt this year and Jones wins the heavyweight title. I would be STUNNED if the UFC didn’t make that fight happen, whatever the cost would be. Which once again leaves Blaydes left to go dominate another quality heavyweight as the headliner of UFC Saskatoon while waiting for his chance to shine.

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[h=1]Under the Radar Show Stealer[/h]UFC Vegas 19 is probably not what you’d call “a good card,” but it’s one that I’m going to enjoy the hell out of. Four heavyweight fights? Sign me up! That’s a lot of guys who will be sucking wind harder than Rodolfo Vieira after a quick walk up the stairs, and exhausted beefy boys swinging hammocks at each other is always a good time.
BUT, as fun as all of that will be, the unofficial Fight of the Night has to be Charles Rosa vs. Darrick Minner. Rosa is a dude who is all action and Minner is a dude who tends to win or lose in exciting fashion. His last 13 bouts have finished with stoppages. It’s gonna be fun while it lasts.
HOWEVER, that fight is on the main card so perhaps that’s not deep enough of a sleeper for you. In that case, might I suggest a lovely ‘21 Drakkar Klose vs. Luis Pena. Klose is a very technically proficient striker who is better than his record indicates. Pena is just real weird but tough. When those two things meet, it tends to lead to combustible outcomes.

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Thanks for reading this week, and thank you for everyone who sent in Tweets! Do you have any burning questions about things at least tacitly related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send your Hot Tweets to me, @JedKMeshew and I will answer them! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane. Get weird with it. Let’s have fun.


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