By: Ali Hussain
Kamaru Usman beat Joaguin Buckley at UFC fight night in Atlanta, his first win in four years.
Usman beat Buckley via unanimous decision on the 15th of June, after five brutal rounds.
Usman started the fight strong, as he implemented his gameplan well, which was to nullify Buckley’s attacks with his wrestling.
Usman controlled a large portion of the first half of the fight in control, and was very successful with the takedowns.
The 38 year old ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ took Buckley down four times out of 13 attempts throughout the entirety of the fight, a 30% takedown percentage.
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However, Usman rolled back the years as he mixed wrestling with thudding and accurate strikes in the first two rounds.
However Buckley made some adjustments throughout the rounds by tightening his takedown defence later into the fight.
Going into the third round, Buckley persevered by finding success with his strikes for the first time in the fight, however Usman was already far ahead on the scorecards at this point.
The fourth round became a full blown war, despite the intense pace and ferocity of the fight, Usman remained composed and landed a beautiful takedown despite Buckley’s initial resistance which set the tone for the round.
However in the fifth round, Buckley gave it everything he got by landing the beautiful four-punch combination, he threw over double the amount of strikes compared to Usman and landed 20 signature strikes compared to Usman’s 10 in the final round.
However, it was too little too late for Buckley as Usman did enough to come out victorious.
Usman got emotional after getting his hand raised and thanked his fans for the support, and reassured them that he still has more fight left in the tank.
Coming into the fight, Usman was winless in the past four years, and with wounded knees, there were doubts from fans and pundits alike if the former welterweight champion still had what it takes.
The 38 year old’s last win before this fight was against Colby Covington in November 2021, the two subsequent losses to Leon Edwards knocked the wind from his sails, and the tough loss to Khamzat Chimaev left his UFC career in limbo.
However, Usman bounced back in a big way and reminded everyone he is still one the best in the world.
