There is a new pound-for-pound king in the UFC. It is official. After suffering a brutal knockout to Leon Edwards at the UFC 278, the widely known pound for pound king, Kamaru Usman, is dethroned.
Kamaru Usman entered the bout as a favorite and behaved like one. He dominated all 5 rounds. If Leon Edwards failed to knock him out, he would have won the bout. However, that was not the case. Usman received a brutal leg kick to his head and fell on the canvas unconscious.
The Nigerian Nightmare Is Now Just A Dream – Kamaru Usman Dethroned From The Pound For Pound King Throne
As everything does, this has its consequences as well. Kamaru fell three places down and is now in fourth place on the pound-for-pound UFC list.
All this time, on the list there is one fighter struggling to get out of second place. He was just waiting for the moment to come and overtake the lead. His name is the Macedonian Australian Alexander Volkanovski.
Volk is on an incredible 12-win- streak in the UFC and is considered one of the toughest fighters in the promotion overall. The Great’s reign lasts for three years. Since 2019, when he obtained the title, he has had four defenses. His last defense was at the UFC 276 when he showed the world again why he is the champion. Showed why he is a candidate for the best pound-for-pound fighter. He went into the octagon and completely destroyed Max Holloway.
On the rankings for pound-for-pound fighters, we have two more fighters below him before we get to Usman. The Macedonian fighter is ahead of the middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, and ahead of the former champion Charles Oliveira.
Leon Edwards on the other hand has made a jump on the list. He is now in the high sixth place, ahead of Aljamain Sterling, Dustin Poirier, Jiri Prochazka, etc.
However, will this remain like this? We do not know. A trilogy bout between Usman and Edwards will be scheduled for ‘as soon as possible’, as Usman says, and if he manages to win that one, there will be re-ordering of the list once again.
Dana White confirmed his interest in arranging the trilogy bout as well. He even has a location on his mind – Wembley Stadium in the UK.
“What else makes sense, other than a trilogy? Look at the division, what else makes sense? I talked to Dana and I’ll let him do his job, we’re going to see what date makes sense, probably top of next year.” – Usman says.
“I was going to squeeze one in this year but it’s probably top of next year. But, I want to go to England. I feel like England is my second home. England is half Africa, people don’t know that. It’s time to go over there and entertain my English people, what better story.” Do you think Usman can reclaim his title?
