Kamaru Usman Becomes First African Born UF Champion

Kamaru Usman is the first African-born and the first Nigerian champion in UFC history after recording a victory over American Tyron Woodley in a UFC 235 encounter on Sunday, March 3.
The 31 year old gained the historic feat in Las Vegas in the States after five rounds of knocking out the defending champion.

“You know, you say it. I said ‘you know what, I’m coming for that welterweight strap’ but I didn’t know exactly how I was going to do it! You know, I’m a math guy! That’s the answer, this is the formula and now you’ve got to work out the problems in order to be able to get there and you know, tonight was my night”, the newly crowned UFA welterweight champion said.
Usman dominated the fight and judges decided on a 50-44, 50-44 and 50-45 scoreboard to crown the first African-born Ultimate Fighting Champion.
Meanwhile, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones cruised to an easy win over Anthony Smith and Kamaru Usman.

Usman’s father, a member of the army, moved from Africa to the United States for school when Usman was a young boy. After a few years, the rest of the family arrived in Texas. Usman began wrestling as a freshman in high school. He ran up a record of 53-3 at Bowie High School in Arlington, Texas. After that, he attended the University of Nebraska at Kearny where he was a three-time NCAA Division II All-American. He also won a Division II individual national title and helped the wrestling squad earn a team championship.
He began his MMA career in 2012. Usman won his debut fight by TKO. He was submitted in his second outing. Since then, “The Nigerian Nightmare” has gone unbeaten, using his wrestling skills to run up an overall record of 15-1 He joined the UFC in 2015 and has victories in 10 straight fights with the promotion.

Usman’s plans for helping in his home country are born from personal experience.
“In my village where I’m from, there’s still not running water everywhere. People are still struggling to get clean water. So we’re going to put something together, I have an excellent team, a great manager and we’re going to put something together, we’re going to start an amazing foundation and we’re really going to change lives’‘, he added.

March 09, 2019