Leon Edwards Pulls Upset By Knocking Out Kamaru Usman

Kamaru Usman was en route to another win.

But it seems this time around wasn’t meant for him — Leon Edwards got his revenge.

Edwards shocked the MMA community last night when he knocked out Usman — the longtime defending welterweight champion — with a head kick in the final round of UFC 278.

Edwards became the first Jamaican-born fighter and second England-based athlete to win the title.

It’s more for the people that grew up where I grew up,” Edwards said.

“I know it. I felt it. I felt the pressure. I felt the doubt. I felt people saying it couldn’t be done. I was born with nothing.”

The kick heard ’round the world 🌎

[ @Leon_EdwardsMMA | #UFC278 ] pic.twitter.com/GfmX7pBnj6

— UFC (@ufc) August 21, 2022

Usman was dominating a majority of their second fight and was ahead on all three judges’ scorecards heading into the fifth round.

But with just a minute left, Usman tried dodging a hit from Edwards on the left and Edwards caught him with a head kick that made the crowd go wild.

Usman was on the verge of tying Anderson Silva’s longest UFC winning streak. The “Nigerian Nightmare” was also ranked at the top of UFC’s pound-for-pound list for quite sometime.

“Look at me now!” Edwards said. “Look at me now! Pound-for-pound one!”

Usman won their first fight in December 2015 by unanimous decision.

Usman was taken to a hospital after the fight, but he tweeted afterward:

“Champs f— up sometimes … but we bounce back and come with vengeance!!”

In the co-main event, Luke Rockhold and Paulo Costa held war. It was evident that Rockhold got tired in the first round, but even though he hardly kept his hands up, he had the kicking and punching power until the last seconds.

Costa tested his chin in each round. Rockhold lost by unanimous decision.
He then announced retirement.

Costa is on a winning streak now and will likely be back in the title run.
Merab Dvalishvili served defeat to legendary Jose Aldo.

Dvalishvili showed nothing but respect to Brazilian before and after the fight. However, during the fight, he did not give Aldo any time to rest with his takedown attempts. Aldo defended most of the takedown attempts.

Still, Dvalishvili was controlling the Brazilian in the clinch and also won some exchanges in the final rounds, so he earned a unanimous decision victory with 29-28, 29-28, 30-27 on the judges’ scorecard.

Check the rest of the results down below:

• Leon Edwards (c) def. Kamaru Usman via fifth-round knockout (head kick)
• Paulo Costa def. Luke Rockhold via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Merab Dvalishvili def. Jose Aldo via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
• Lucie Pudilova def. Wu Yanan via second-round TKO (elbows)
• Tyson Pedro def. Harry Hunsucker via first-round TKO (punches)
• Marcin Tybura def. Alexander Romanov via majority decision (29-28, 28-29, 28-28)
• Jared Gordon def. Leonardo Santos via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Sean Woodson vs. Luis Saldana ruled a split draw (29-27, 27-29, 28-28)
• Ange Loosa def. A.J. Fletcher via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-28, 29-28)
• Amir Albazi def. Francisco Figueiredo via first-round submission (rear-naked choke)
• Aori Qileng def. Jay Perrin via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Victor Altamirano def. Daniel Da Silva via first-round TKO (punches)