“When you go years without a loss and then you lose twice on the slim, you start questioning and doubting yourself because you almost forget what it feels like,” Usman said in an interview after UFC 294. “If there’s anything I can take away from tonight, it’s that I need to trust myself and my coaches more, and then we can come back.”
“Getting up on ten days notice from the couch to fight a young, hungry bull who has had a year and a half to grow to this weight class, I didn’t have enough faith in my form. I’m a championship level fighter and I can’t get off to such a slow start. If I had a couple more rounds, the world would know what the result of this fight should be”
The middleweight bout between Hamzat Chimaev and Kamaru Usman, the second event of UFC 294, went all three rounds and ended in a majority decision victory for the Chechen fighter.
The victory over the Nigerian ensured “Borz” the right to fight the division’s current champion, Sean Strickland, and UFC head Dana White has already confirmed the challenger status of Khamzat Chimaev.