‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ is back! After three sad back-to-back losses, Kamaru Usman finally picked a much-needed victory against Joaquin Buckley at UFC on ESPN 69 via a unanimous decision [49-46, 49-46, and 48-47]. He seemed to control major parts of the fight, though he was in danger occasionally. For instance: In round 2, Buckley delivered a sidekick to Usman’s midsection, which made him take a funny step. ‘New Mansa’ was about to follow up with punches, but Usman was quick to respond.

Then, during round 5, Buckley decided a tried and tested move in order to defeat the former champion. He unleashed his inner Leon Edwards and started the round with a head kick, but Usman had already learned from his old mistake. He kept moving forward and eventually grabbed the victory. Overwhelmed with emotion, Usman shed tears of joy during his post-fight interview, thanking everyone who stood by him through the darkest chapters of his career.

And it is true that 2022 and 2023 were the tough times in his professional MMA career. After his three straight losses (twice against Edwards and then Khamzat Chimaev), he did not return to the octagon in 2024. So a win on his comeback fight left him emotional. During the Octagon interview, the former champion nearly broke down as he explained the burdens he had to carry just to face Buckley. He said:

“I can do that to anybody — any one of them. But like I said, I needed to get that monkey off my back, you know? Early on in my career, as I was rolling, once I had that monkey off my back, I knew I was rolling, I was able to open up, and you guys saw all those spectacular knockouts.

“I have got some of the best minds in the game. You know, with coaches like Henri Hooft, Trevor Wittman, Jorge Santiago, Ben Cherrington, all my training partners for those knockouts to come. I just needed to get this monkey off of my back. Next one, whoever it is for that title, I’ll see about you. Before I go, I just wanted to say that I have a lot of emotions coming into this one like I said. It has been a long time. 

“A lot of emotions, a lot of things that I had to battle back from. I’m holding back all the emotions. Unfortunately, my daughter can’t be here with me tonight. That’s another long story. But man, I just want to say thank you to everybody — thank you to my family, my coaches who kept me going, Buckley for bringing in challenge.”

Kamaru Usman and his partner Eleslie Dietzsch have one daughter together, Samirah Usman, who was born in 2014. Samirah, 11, has occasionally appeared been spotted alongside her father at UFC events and training sessions. And while the fighter has always kept his personal life under the wraps, his social media posts reveal he involves his daughter in training camps and gym visits.

Kamaru Usman shuts down critics after beating Joaquin Buckley!

Ahead of the fight, many had written off Kamaru Usman, claiming that the former welterweight champion’s days as the division’s boogeyman were over. Critics highlighted his knee issues and doubted his ability to compete with the younger generation but all of that was proven wrong at UFC Atlanta.

While having a conversation with the media, after the fight, a fired-up Usman stated, “I know it’s a running joke, everybody wants to get on the internet and talk s–t. His knees, his knees. Well shut the f–k up. I can still do what I do. The rest of the welterweight division, listen. I have been and always will be the f—ing boogeyman.”

Now that the former bantamweight champion has defeated Buckley, his next challenge could be the winner of the Islam Makhachev vs. Jack Della Maddalena fight. However, we might also see him face contenders like Sean Brady, Ian Garry, or even Belal Muhammad. For now, we will have to wait and see what Usman does with his career after this amazing victory. Who do you think should be his next opponent? Let us know in the comments below.