Former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman’s rise to the title featured a win that irks Joe Rogan to this day.
On the way up the welterweight ladder, Kamaru Usman defeated a slew of legendary names in pursuit of a UFC championship belt. But one of his early career wins has an asterisk next to it in Joe Rogan‘s mind.
Usman is considered by many as one of the greatest UFC fighters of all time, and arguably the greatest welterweight in the promotion’s illustrious history. His dominant welterweight title reign featured wins over Jorge Masvidal, Colby Covington (twice), and Gilbert Burns as he sat atop the UFC’s pound-for-pound mountain.
What makes Usman’s title run impressive is the strength of schedule he overcame in pursuit of UFC gold. This includes a win over grappling legend Demian Maia in May 2018 that didn’t play out without some controversial moments.
Kamaru Usman’s early UFC win over grappling ace still bothers Joe Rogan
Usman and Maia squared off in the UFC Santiago main event in a pivotal matchup of two then-top welterweight contenders. The winner would move one step closer to a title shot against then-champion Tyron Woodley.
Usman and Maia wasted no time getting after it in Round 1, as the two top grapplers had a wild scramble early. But in one of the biggest ‘What if’s in UFC history, Maia nearly finished Usman, if it wasn’t for a premature decision by referee Leon Roberts.
During a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan detailed what still angers him about Usman’s win over Maia at UFC Santiago.
“To this day, the one fight that drives me the most crazy where a referee f—– it up, was Kamaru Usman and Demian Maia,” Rogan highlighted. “Because in the first round, Demian Maia had Kamaru Usman’s back standing up, had one leg laced, had his back, but it was taking too long and the referee separated them.
“And I’m like ‘You m———-, he’s so close!’. You’ve got one of the greatest ground specialists of all-time, and Kamaru’s f—– man, because it could’ve been a loss and Kamaru would’ve been back to the drawing board.”
Maia wouldn’t get as close to a finish as the five-round main event progressed, with Usman coasting to a unanimous decision victory. After defeating Rafael dos Anjos in his next fight after UFC Santiago, Usman dethroned Woodley at UFC 235 to become the UFC welterweight champion.
Rogan has repeatedly stood by his assertion that Roberts made a horrible mistake in breaking up Usman and Maia as Maia drew closer to sinking in a potential submission. Usman remained unbeaten in his UFC tenure before a come-from-behind knockout loss to Leon Edwards at UFC 278.
Kamaru Usman faces surging welterweight in UFC Atlanta return
Seven years after the Maia fight, Usman is looking to snap the first losing skid of his professional MMA career when he faces Joaquin Buckley at UFC Atlanta in June. Usman lost back-to-back fights to Edwards before a short-notice middleweight defeat to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294.
Usman faces a dangerous challenge in Buckley, who has looked almost insurmountable since making the full-time move to welterweight earlier in his UFC career. Buckley has earned recent wins over Covington, Vicente Luque, and Stephen Thompson and is knocking on the door of a potential title shot.
Usman will look to turn back the clock and prove he remains one of the most dangerous men in the UFC when he returns in June. But regardless of what happens at UFC Atlanta, Rogan will always have questions about one of Usman’s most controversial victories.
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