After making his debut in December 2019, Kamaru Usman made 14 trips to the UFC octagon before Leon Edwards dropped him with a head kick at UFC 278 in September 2022. Usman not only lost the welterweight title on the night, but fans had suddenly seemed to have woken up from the spell of the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’.
While that was expected, unfortunately, news also broke about certain sponsors having nulled their contracts with Usman. But Joe Rogan wasn’t having it.
The longtime color commentator, who had called Usman’s fights through the course of his journey in the Dana White-led promotion, took on the disrespectful few, calling them out for their lack of understanding of the sport.
“That’s the sport“, he said, trying to explain to the detractors about the consequences of a once-in-a-lifetime kick to the head. Citing NBA star LeBron James, the UFC caller went on a rant defending Usman.
“If you drop Kamaru Usman because of a one-kick knockout in a sport… that’s like dropping LeBron [James] if someone dunked on him… What are you talking about?” he said, startled at the general overreaction.
Sprinkling a little of that colorful flavor he’s known for, Rogan also sent a message to people who were messing with Usman’s finances. “All those sponsors can go f**k themselves”, the UFC commentator said loudly for people in the back.
Notably, the UFC 278 loss wasn’t exactly a one-sided fight that fan reactions would have you believe. Usman fairly dominated the fight for four and a half rounds with 189 strikes, compared to Edwards’ 64. He had 61 headshots to the Brit’s 20.
And on the ground, Usman dominated Leon with 22 strikes and received only 6 in return. He was winning by every single parameter, until the Brit caught him with a head kick- something that can happen to just about anyone, through no fault of their own, despite their greatness.
And that is the point Rogan tried to make.
“What are you talking about? Like, this is what the sport is, and these are the consequences, and these consequences are available even to the greatest champions. If you get head-kicked, that’s it. That’s the button… It was clean. There was no surviving that”, he noted in frustration.
It also didn’t help that at the time, Usman didn’t just have to deal with the pressure of being the champion. He was also the pound-for-pound no. 1 fighter in the world at the time, and was one fight away from levelling with the greatest welterweight of all time, Anderson Silva’s 15-fight win streak.
Rogan then began to explain the psychology after losing a fight, and on a scale of the nature of UFC 278.
NBA loss got nothing on UFC, asserts Rogan
“The consequences of an NBA player losing a game… the consequences of losing a fight are so much graver“, the UFC commentator continued, adding that there are always so many more emotions and so much more on the line due to the sport’s primal nature.
Will Harris, who was Rogan’s guest on the evening, seconded him and said that if it were an NBA game and the Lakers had lost to the Warriors, they would be like, ‘Oh, we are playing them in a month in Golden State‘.
But “Kamaru’s got to wait half a year to get that back“, Harris added. Rogan nodded in agreement but revealed that it could even be longer before the two would fight again.
“What if someone comes along and offers a big fight to Leon that is exciting, and Leon loses?“, questioned Rogan.
Harris, who was documenting the camp and the fight night for Usman, then revealed that it was a graveyard backstage.
After Usman was taken to the hospital by his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, Harris was left at his place, with his team, coaches, and parents, all of whom were dead quiet, almost in mourning – until the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ returned and brought some life back to the place.
“F*ck is wrong with you all?” Usman said, shocked at the reaction from his loved ones.
After taking a moment to gather himself, the former welterweight champion noted, “Man, I was beating his a**, like I am cool. The f*ck?… I am going to beat his a** when we fight again.”
“I am cool”, he reiterated.
Unfortunately, that would not be the case. Usman would face Edwards in a rematch seven months later at UFC 286. Edwards, now the champion, would end up outperforming him in every arguable parameter over five rounds, winning the fight via majority decision.
Usman would fight once more, albeit in the middleweight division at UFC 294 in October 2023, against Khamzat Chimaev on short notice. Despite a spirited performance against the title contender, he would lose the fight by another majority decision, extending his skid to three.
He has not fought since.
