Reported prose from our newsroom. Grappling-led all-rounder
Kamaru Usman carries a 16-3 UFC record built over 19 appearances into the main event. The former welterweight champion enters on a unanimous-decision win over Joaquin Buckley in June 2025 that snapped a three-fight losing run. Before it, Usman dropped a majority decision to Khamzat Chimaev in October 2023 and lost twice to Leon Edwards, by majority decision in March 2023 and by knockout in August 2022. A wrestling-based pressure fighter, Usman built his championship reign on takedowns, top control and a punishing jab. The Buckley result marked a return to the win column after that difficult stretch at 170 pounds. He meets Dricus Du Plessis at middleweight in Oklahoma City.
The facts, plainly — vitals and record from public UFC statistics; nickname, nationality, hometown and camp from the public fighter register. A field we can't source stays “pending”; it never shows a fake value.
| Nickname | The Nigerian Nightmare |
| Nationality | Nigeria |
| Hometown | Auchi, Edo |
| Fighting out of | Kill Cliff FC |
| Height | 6' 0" |
| Reach | 76.0" |
| Stance | Switch |
| Age | 39 |
| Date of birth | May 11, 1987 |
| Weight | 170 lbs. |
| Pro record | 21-5 |
| Finish split | 16 UFC wins — 4 KO/TKO, 1 submission, 11 decision |
Career averages over Kamaru Usman’s UFC bouts, straight from public UFC statistics — the same eight numbers on his official record. These are the source’s figures, not our read: what we make of them is the card below.
Six 0–100 scores, each a percentile rank against the Middleweight field — not against the whole roster. Tap any i for what a score measures.
Every fight of Kamaru Usman’s that we called in the live 2026 season — whichever corner we called it for. Posted before the fight, graded after it.
FightIQ has called 1 of Kamaru Usman’s fights in 2026: 1 correct (1–0 — 100% right). Each call was posted before the fight and graded after it. The confidence % is the number we stood behind at the time — losses shown, toss-ups included.
| Date | Opponent | We called it for | Confidence | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-18 | Dricus Du Plessis | Dricus Du Plessis (against Usman) | 54.3% | Correct |
Across our full back-tested history we called 3 of Kamaru Usman’s fights, 1 correct. Back-tested, not part of the public timestamped record: these were computed after the fact, so they show the model working on old cards — they were never published ahead of those fights.
Where the strikes go — and where they land on him. Career UFC totals, straight off the tape.
Significant strikes only, as recorded by UFCStats, across the fighter's whole UFC career. Shares are raw counts — nothing here is modelled or smoothed. Accuracy is landed ÷ attempted and comes from the per-round tape, which covers slightly fewer fights than the totals do. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average.
The level change — how often it lands, how often it is stopped. Career UFC rates, straight off the tape.
Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (6.86 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.
Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average.
Pro record: 21-5. In the UFC: 16-4. Kamaru Usman’s last 8 UFC bouts, most recent first — the result in the cage, not our pick.
Straight off the official UFC fight record. Card names are left off on purpose: the only event labels in our data are derived, and we’d rather print nothing than print one that’s wrong.
| Date | Opponent | Method | Rd | Event | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-18 | L | Dricus Du Plessis | Decision (unanimous) | R5 | UFC Fight Night: Du Plessis vs. Usman |
| 2025-06-14 | W | Joaquin Buckley | Decision (unanimous) | R5 | UFC Fight Night: Usman vs. Buckley |
| 2023-10-21 | L | Khamzat Chimaev | Decision (majority) | R3 | UFC 294: Makhachev vs. Volkanovski 2 |
| 2023-03-18 | L | Leon Edwards | Decision (majority) | R5 | UFC 286: Edwards vs. Usman 3 |
| 2022-08-20 | L | Leon Edwards | KO/TKO | R5 | UFC 278: Usman vs. Edwards |
| 2021-11-06 | W | Colby Covington | Decision (unanimous) | R5 | — |
| 2021-04-24 | W | Jorge Masvidal | KO/TKO | R2 | UFC 261: Usman vs. Masvidal 2 |
| 2021-02-13 | W | Gilbert Burns | KO/TKO | R3 | UFC 258: Usman vs. Burns |
| 2020-07-11 | W | Jorge Masvidal | Decision (unanimous) | R5 | UFC 251: Usman vs. Masvidal |
| 2019-12-14 | W | Colby Covington | KO/TKO | R5 | UFC 245: Usman vs. Covington |
| 2019-03-02 | W | Tyron Woodley | Decision (unanimous) | R5 | UFC 235: Jones vs. Smith |
| 2018-11-30 | W | Rafael Dos Anjos | Decision (unanimous) | R5 | The Ultimate Fighter: Heavy Hitters Finale |
| 2018-05-19 | W | Demian Maia | Decision (unanimous) | R5 | UFC Fight Night: Maia vs. Usman |
| 2018-01-14 | W | Emil Meek | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | UFC Fight Night: Stephens vs. Choi |
| 2017-09-16 | W | Sergio Moraes | KO/TKO | R1 | UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Branch |
| 2017-04-08 | W | Sean Strickland | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | UFC 210: Cormier vs. Johnson 2 |
| 2016-11-19 | W | Warlley Alves | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | — |
| 2016-07-23 | W | Alexander Yakovlev | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | UFC on FOX: Holm vs. Shevchenko |
| 2015-12-19 | W | Leon Edwards | Decision (unanimous) | R3 | UFC on FOX: Dos Anjos vs. Cowboy 2 |
| 2015-07-12 | W | Hayder Hassan | Submission | R2 | The Ultimate Fighter: American Top Team vs. Blackzilians Finale |
Every date links to that bout’s own page. Card names come from the official event record; where the UFC ran two cards on one date, or that record has no row for it, the Event column is left empty rather than filled with a guess.
