THE RETURN OF THE NIGERIAN NIGHTMARE

Published in

Munch News

3 min readOct 21, 2023

The stakes have never been higher at UFC middleweight!
The former 5 x time defending welterweight king Kamaru Usman is moving up to Middleweight on 11 days notice to fend off rising star Khamzat Chimaev aka the WOLF.

So the number 4# ranked welterweight takes on the 1# ranked welterweight at middleweight with the possibility of fighting for the middleweight title at the conclusion of their bout. Makes sense? Of course it doesn’t!

But with a need for something fresh at middleweight the UFC are attempting to inject some new blood into the stagnating division instead of seeing the same faces repeatedly fighting for the title. (that’s our take on the matter)

The expert analysts believe at 185lb (please see the Dan Hardy breakdown on the full reptile podcast)
Usman will be far stronger than he was cutting weight at welterweight and will be harder to handle for the (12–0) undefeated Khamzat who seems to rag doll everyone in the first round.

Khamzat’s 2 longest UFC fights were his debut, which lasted all of 6 min 12 seconds, and fighting the then ranked #5 Gilbert Burns, which went the distance of a full 15 min.

That said, Khamzat aims to blitz his opponents and get the job done in the first 3 min of the first round.
Even though this fight is only 3 rounds, my money is on Usman having the superior gas tank having been in no less than 8 five round wars during his career.

Is Usman ready?
Though Usman is denying it, there is video footage to strongly suggest that something happened to his left knee on the training mat with Justin Gaethje during the open workouts. He clearly was heard saying ‘something popped’, and he got up off the mat holding his left knee.

Nobody wants to give their opponent unnecessary information about any injuries before the fight, but clearly, Usman might be heading into this fight slightly compromised.
If the fight goes beyond round one, my money is on the Nigerian Nightmare.

If Khamzat doesn’t get the job done in the first round, which is clearly his MO, then the longer the fight goes it favours Usman.
Whatever happens, it is going to be one hellava fight!
There remains just one question here today.
Will you be a witness?

UFC 294: Makhachev vs. Volkanovski 2 is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will take place on October 21, 2023, at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

follow our webpage https://munchmma.com/

THE RETURN OF THE NIGERIAN NIGHTMARE

Written by Munch News