Kamaru Usman has explained what happened in the aftermath of his knockout loss to Leon Edwards.

Last month at UFC 278, Leon Edwards well and truly shocked the world by knocking Kamaru Usman out to become the new UFC welterweight champion. Many fans and pundits felt like ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ was on his way to a comfortable victory on the judges’ scorecards but with just one minute remaining in the fight, it was Edwards who managed to land one of the best head kick KOs of all time to finally achieve his dream of becoming the champ.

Ever since then many have wondered what was going through Usman’s head and during a recent interview with Joe Rogan, the former king cleared things up.

“What I wanted to do was set him up and I was going to throw the punches that he couldn’t see and I wanted to sit him down and get him out of there,” Usman said. “I wanted to throw with conviction like I did with [Jorge] Masvidal and get him out of there. What I’m going to do is shake left, shake right and then I’m going to let it go, but I’ve got to get him moving first, and I didn’t do a great job of that.

“I’m moving, moving, OK, I’ve got him set up, which I really didn’t. I shake left, I shake right, and I’m sitting in an ambulance and they’re asking me, ‘Do you know where you’re at?’ I’m like, ‘What the f***?’”

Usman went on to describe his condition after the shocking defeat.

“I was good,” Usman said. “I watched the fight over, I’m good. I was talking, I talked to Trevor [Wittman], I talked to everyone, because you know you go back and then you go in the medical tent and they take care of you and all of that. I talked to my family, I hugged everyone, because it was on video and everything. I remember sitting. It was like, Leon gave me a 20-minute nap.”

The trilogy awaits

Unsurprisingly, the expectation is that Kausanmaru Usman will bounce back and challenge Leon Edwards for the 170-pound belt in a trilogy fight next year.

If all goes to plan, we can expect England to play host to this titanic showdown.