Daniel Cormier expects oddsmakers to favor Kamaru Usman in a trilogy bout against Leon Edwards.
Edwards (20-3 MMA, 12-2 UFC) dethroned Usman (20-2 MMA, 15-1 UFC) with an incredible head-kick knockout in this past Saturday’s UFC 278 headliner in Salt Lake City.
But before stopping Usman with less than one minute left in Round 5, Edwards was en route to losing a unanimous decision in a fight he was in which he was being dominated outside of the first round. The opening odds already have Usman as a sizable favorite against Edwards in a potential trilogy, and Cormier agrees.
“For Kamaru Usman, how much did this change? As a guy that’s been knocked out before, everything changes once you realize that it’s possible,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “When you have that aura of invincibility, that belief that you cannot be put out clean, you are willing to do a lot of things. Usman went out today for the very first time in his career, and I wonder how that’s going to affect him going forward. But if you think about the matchup and how it was going, and you have to bet the third fight, you’ve got to think that Usman is going to be the favorite, because he was cruising.
“He was doing a really good job of pressuring Leon Edwards, bullying Leon Edwards – those were Leon’s coaches words – and just really making him fight on his heels. But it was the moment that he didn’t back up is when Leon Edwards found that beautiful high kick. He went right hand, left hand straight. Didn’t throw either of those strikes to connect. He threw them just in order to get Usman’s hands up so that he could land the head kick that ultimately won him the championship. It was perfect.”
Both Edwards and UFC president Dana White expect a rubber match next, with White pondering the idea of Wembley Stadium in London, something Usman is all for.
Daniel Cormier: Kamaru Usman should be favorite in Leon Edwards trilogy, ‘because he was cruising’