Francis Ngannou claims Kamaru Usman “didn’t train” before UFC 286
Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou claims that former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman “didn’t train” before UFC 286.
Usman lost a majority decision in his trilogy fight against Leon Edwards in the main event of UFC 286, losing his chance to reclaim the UFC welterweight title. For Usman, it was another tough loss to suffer after getting head kicked KOed by Edwards last summer at UFC 278. While he is still one of the greatest welterweights of all time, losing twice to Edwards means that he won’t be in the title mix anytime soon, at least until — and if — Edwards loses his title.
We are now finding out why Usman didn’t have as good of a performance as many expected him to. Usman’s longtime friend, the former heavyweight champ Ngannou, recently spoke on his YouTube channel and admitted that Usman went into the fight with injuries, ailments that didn’t allow him to properly train for the title fifght.
“I know that he didn’t train. He didn’t have (time) to train properly because of a lot of injury, but he was there. He was there. It’s a victory, an unfortunate victory, but I think now he’s mentally healthy than what he was before,” Ngannou said (via MMAjunkie.com).
For Usman, what makes the loss to Edwards in the trilogy even tougher to handle is that he looked quite good in their last fight, winning most of the fight before getting head kicked with about a minute left in the match. But in the trilogy fight, it was a far lesser performance by Usman, who was not able to get his wrestling going and who lost the striking battle. Although a point deduction to Edwards for grabbing the cage made the fight very close on the scorecards, ultimately Edwards still got the win.
What do you think is next for Kamaru Usman after losing to Leon Edwards at UFC 286, and what do you think is next for Francis Ngannou after leaving the UFC?
