UFC 286 is scheduled to take place on Saturday, with the main event being a Welterweight title fight between current champion Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman. This match will give Usman a chance to redeem himself after losing his title to Edwards via knockout at UFC 278.
UFC 286 is scheduled for Saturday, and the main event is a Welterweight title fight between current champion Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman.(Twitter)
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On Friday, former MMA fighter Michael Bisping investigated how Usman was feeling before the high-speed bout. Bisping gave his example when he was knocked out by Dan Henderson at UFC 100. Seven years later at UFC 204 when Bisping locked horns with Henderson again, the previous loss it played a lot on his mind.
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“For me, when I fought Henderson the first time, I got woken up, I got knocked out – and you can fool everybody, but you can’t fool yourself,” Bisping in a guest Q&A of UFC 286.
“You can talk to the media, you can do interviews, even your friends and family, they say, ‘Yes, yes, I’m confident, I’m good, I’m good.’ But that day, I started thinking, ‘The last time I went into the cage with this guy, I fainted and the whole world laughed at me.’ So the nerves started to kick in,” he recalled.
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Bisping talked about what Usman might be going through his mind before the fight starts on Saturday. He also highlighted how much of an impact his first loss to Edwards would have on his pysche and confidence before stepping into the ring.
To be honest, that’s what Kamaru is going through [Saturday] at night. Because, he doesn’t know – and he’s a very special athlete, so I’m not saying he can’t come back from that, because you can – but anyway, he probably doesn’t know, until a few hours to At the end of preparation, you are lying in bed, trying to sleep, trying to save your energy for the fight, and you find you can’t sleep. “Because, wait a minute, to realize that you’re going to fight this guy again, and you’re going to lie down in front of the whole world, it’s mind-boggling,” Bisping said.
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