Kamaru Usman Calls Loss to Leon Edwards "A Relief"

You were saying that it's almost a little bit of a relief. Yeah. Yeah, it was... it's weird. It's weird to really explain, but it's... You get to a certain point to where people start putting expectations on you. They start like, oh yeah, you're gonna do this, you're gonna do that, yeah, you're this, you're that. To where I didn't get into it for all of that. I was never... I was never attached to the title. Now, as weird as that sound, I didn't. I was never attached to it. It wasn't like, oh, I'm champion. I gotta hold on to this, I gotta hold on to this, I gotta hold on to this. No, and I've said it before and I continue to say it. In my head, each and every time I was fighting for that title or defending that belt, I was fighting for the title. I was a contender in my head. I felt like that. I have to go contend for this belt each and every time. Because I feel like when you're defending, you're tight. Now you're on defense. You're not thinking offense. You just wanna... anything to hold on to this, anything to hold on to this. I was never really like that. So, everyone got felt like they kinda started putting expectations like, yo, you're about to break this record. I didn't even know what Anderson Silva's record was until like before last fight, where everyone started saying, oh yeah, you're about to break the Anderson Silva's record, or you're about to tie this, and yo, you already broke George St. Peter's record. I don't care. I don't give a shit. The last time I cared about the number was when I was five and one, and I was about to get into the UFC. I was like, yeah, I'm five and one. Damn, Rashad went on like a 15-fight win streak one time. Damn, I wish I could do something that great. And... but I just... Rashad even told me at that point, he's like, just take it fight at a time. As long as you worry about that next fight and that next fight and the next fight, they'll add up. And so, yeah, it was almost like a relief of expectations of everyone's pressure. Oh yeah, you're the goat this, you're the goat that. That's relative. That's a relative... like, it's hard to argue that situation because George St. Pierre was the greatest in his error. With what he had to deal with, the opposition he had to deal with, he was the greatest, hands down. And, you know, when George St. Pierre kind of moved aside, Woodley was that guy. And then Robbie had to stint there, Robbie was that guy. So... and Pat Milletitch had to stint when he was that guy. So was... did Matt Hughes. And so to say, oh yeah, that guy's the goat. That's relative because styles make fights. Because when I was knocked out, I was like, my eyes were open, which was the craziest thing to me, you know. Now that I... I've watched the fight over maybe like 10 times. And my eyes were open, which is weird. And so people would like screen grab that and make a fake page with that as the avatar and have a page dedicated to that. Like, you got knocked out, you got this, you got... For them to take time out of their day, I'm like, shit. I'm special. Like, I'm special. Mostly people that don't have a good life. It's weird to me. They did have a good life. I don't have the time to do that shit. How do you have time to do that shit? Yeah, I don't want to tell people to scroll through... Rather than go out of your way to make a page and just... But they think that that bothers me. But it's funny to me. It was funny. It made you laugh. Yeah, it made me laugh. Did you see the photo of me interviewing you in the middle of the... I almost posted that yesterday. Oh, shit. That was hilarious. I was like, Joe, got to get that interview. That was so rough. No, it was... What an experience, though. What do you remember after the head kick? Oh, man, this is... I was dreading talking about this. But not in a bad way. It was funny to me. The fight is going... And there is a zone that I've learned to put myself in. And my coaches can attest to this, because I do it even in training. There's a way that I train, that I practice, to where I try to get myself into the zone, which is as similar to a fight experience as I can be. And to where I try not to be bothered by anything that's going on. And my body has adjusted and gotten used to this. So in the first round, the fight's going on, and boom, that situation happens. He hooked my legs, and this is my bad knee. Well, my not so good knee. Both of them aren't the greatest. So I'm like, okay, let me hip him through. So I try to hip him through, but he just had great position. Kudos to him. And I get taken down. That I probably was more upset about. Giving up that takedown. I was like, fuck! I gave up a takedown. So we get done, and he tries to, he takes it back, and I'm just chilling. And waiting for the bell, and the bell goes off, and I get up. And I didn't realize this until I watched the fight back over. I get up, and I was kind of smiled. I get up, and I jogged back to my corner. But I look at it, and I'm like, okay, I know that's where I was at at that time. I was in that zone, to where I'm unbothered by whatever is happening. I'm going to make this be whatever I want it to be. And so the next round, I just take off, and I just start kind of whaling on him. And so by the fifth round, I kind of have him in a spot to where I'm just like, I never think, okay, yeah, I've got the fight won. Let me just coast. Let me hold on to him and win. I never think that. I want to, if I can get the finish, I'm going to try to get that finished. And I want to do something spectacular. I'm like, okay, we're going to take a risk here. We're going to do something great. And I remember, and this is the great thing about Trevor Whitman in the training camp, we work on certain techniques to kind of put him where you want him and get him out of there. Like even in the Master of the All Fight, like everyone, oh, the knockout just happened. No, I set him up for the knockout. People didn't realize. I did the same sequence in the first round that I did to finish him. And so I start that with Leon, you know, because I've kind of got Leon in a place now to where I, you know, I could kind of really kind of dictate whatever I wanted to do. And so we get him and I get him up. And I think her breaks us from the cage. So we're moving and I'm trying to set him up and I'm trying to get his feet moving. I wasn't doing the greatest of job, which is this is all on me. And I'm trying to get his feet moving. You see me changing levels. And what I wanted to do is set him up. And I was going to throw the punches that he couldn't see. And I wanted to sit him down and get him out of there. I wanted to throw him with conviction and really get like I did with Master of the All and get him out of there. And so I'm like, okay, what I'm going to do is I'm going to shake left, shake right. And then I'm going to let him go. But I got to get him moving first. And I didn't do a great job of that. And so I'm moving, moving. I'm like, okay, I got him set up. All right. Which I really didn't. I shake left. I shake right. And I'm sitting in the ambulance and they're asking me, do you know where you're at? That's what you remember. You remember waking up in the ambulance. Yeah, I was awake, but I remember coming to it in the ambulance. So you had been awake because you were walking around, but you were still gone. Oh, I was good. Yeah, I was good. I was talk. I watched the fight over. I'm good. I was talking. I was like, you know, everyone I apparently, because you know, you go back and then you go into the medical tent and they take care of you and all of that. You don't remember any of that. And they talked to me. I talked to my family. I hugged everyone because he's on video and everything. I remember sitting. It was like, Leon gave me like a 20 minute nap. Oh, which was it was I think about and I was laughing hysterically in the hospital because I had to go in just to get scanned and all of that, which everything was fine. So it's like immediately I come to I'm in the I'm in the ambulance. They're asking me, you know where you're at? I'm like, yeah, Salt Lake City, USC, 270. Hey, what's your date of birth? I'm like, I answer five, you know, and they were like, wow, perfect. I answered everything perfectly. Like, oh, we still need to take you to the hospital just to get you scanned and everything like that. I was like, I find so we go to the hospital to get scanned and everything. But I was already good. I was OK. I wasn't I was maybe disappointed that I lost, but I wasn't like bummed like the first loss that I had in my career. That one that one fucked with me.