In July of last year, Kamaru Usman successfully defended his UFC welterweight title against Jorge Masvidal. The ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ won the fight via unanimous decision with only one of the three judges scoring a single round for his opponent. For the other two, the fight was a five-round clean sweep for the defending champion. Still, despite the dominant win, Usman wanted to run the fight back.
The reason, as the champ explained it, for a rematch was that he didn’t want to provide Masvidal with an excuse for the loss. ‘Gamebred’ accepted the original fight on short notice, replacing Gilbert Burns—who tested positive for COVID-19 nine days before the fight card.