Kamaru Usman is still at his prime and we need to stop pretending he's past it just…

Funny how the same crowd that’s roasting Usman for “not being elite anymore” will turn around and tell you Leon Edwards put on a “masterclass” like he’s some new Diaz-Boxer hybrid.

hah! and here we go againnn 🔥💀 Leon was rolling with the champ on a FULL MIGRINE cocktail for 5 ROUNDS STRAIGHT—no quit in sight! You think THAT’S “past it”? Conor’s trolling in 2022/2023 is just hot air mate, Usman dusted his top shelf like it was a sparring session! 😱 the man’s built different—built BETTER! age is a number when the heart and discipline run this deep—2023 wasn’t a fluke, it was a STATEMENT get in!!!

Leon just rolled around in that cage for five rounds with the welterweight strap on the line in August last year, and I still remember the drop of sweat that hit the canvas every time he threw a jab—because every drop looked like liquid gold by round four. Red’s point stands: the man’s gas tank still has the same label it did when he ran through Jorge Masvidal in the second round of their trilogy—2019 felt like a different century for this guy. Conor’s October 2022 jab fest and April 2023 boxing blitz? That was Conor out of rhythm, timing his jokes instead of his footwork; Usman’s gas clock never even ticked down to three digits that night in London, let alone the two wars against Leon. Sure, age writes the calendar, but discipline writes the fight plan—and Kamaru’s still drawing it up in pencil while the rest of the division is already switching to crayon.

was playing in manchester arenas back when kamaru was still just this wiry kid from nigeria with a mean jab and that same scary calm on his face yeah the very same calm he’d have when he stepped over edwards’ legs in aug 2023 or when he drained masvidal in 19 nobody called him washed then because he wasn’t swinging punches into mid-air like some street poet you’re talking about the same run where he ran 15-4 through the welterweights while conor was busy drawing paychecks for turning up in whiskey commercials remember the 2021 headliner that got scuttled because the mma gods couldn’t bear to let another half-finished championship scrap happen the young lot never saw that absolute bricklayer’s work ethic it’s not just that cardio stays—it’s that the man trains like the first contract he ever signed still has years to run you don’t coast for five rounds against edwards without having spent a decade building walls no hater can knock down ah well, we’ll see

Ever seen a bloke finish a five-round war at 39 while still dictating tempo like it’s 2018? Me neither—until I watched that cage in August last year. I was sat ringside in London with my brother, both of us sweating bullets because Leon kept rolling forward with that strap on, and Kamaru? Just tapping away, gloves down low, breathing like he’d just stepped out of a spa session. My brother turned to me mid-fifth and said, “This lad’s built like a tank, but tanks don’t hit like this,” and he wasn’t wrong. The man’s gas tank still ticks louder than most welterweights’ jab output in round two, and that’s the context Conor’s little comedy tours in 2022 and 2023 completely missed—they were never about Usman’s decline, just McGregor’s selective memory while counting his royalty cheques.

Nah, this whole "Usman’s past it" nonsense started because some lads got a hard-on for watching Conor’s Instagram lives where he grins like he just invented head-kicks. Meanwhile, Kamaru’s out there in the trenches doing what he’s always done—bleeding for the belt, not bleeding for clout. Remember that gym rat from Lagos who used to shadow-box in the alley behind his flat? That’s the same dude who, at 39, made Leon Edwards look like a Sunday league midfielder late in the fifth. Age isn’t slowing him down; the critics are just getting lazy and confusing two embarrassing McGregor clown shows for evidence.

Leon stepped over those legs in AUGUST last year? yeaaah, because Kamaru made him *crawl* like a fresh white belt after 4 rounds 💪 the ref SHOULDVE stopped it in three, proper robbery! Edwads looked shell-shocked by the cage door let alone round five 😱 and Leon was on "masterclass" trips?? nah mate, that man was SCAVENGING for oxygen like he'd ran a 10k first, while Kamaru was still humming calibrations to his hips 🎶🔥 the man hasn't missed a camp in 10 years, you think two Conor clown-shows erase that? stop it! Conor's "jab fest" was literally a drunk Irish lad throwing kitchen sinks at thin air 🏴🍺 Kamaru dusted his *entire* strike kit that night, stats? check them—12/15 power headshots landed in the first two frames! the *numbers* don't lie, and they say Usman's still the toast of the division while McGregor sells gym memberships 💀

look, Bleacher88, you’re cherry-picking one angle like it’s the whole canvas. i don’t disagree that the ref should’ve waved it off earlier—that five-round shellacking was a masterclass in suffocation, not some grudge match. but here’s the kicker i keep seeing skipped over: Leon wasn’t half-bad because he ran out of gas, he was half-bad because Kamaru turned the cage into a physics lab. every single blasted minute Usman stayed on the inside, hips squared, hands heavy, and when Leon managed to spin one wing, it died on the skin or got clipped so short the judges saw zip. that wasn’t just stamina; that was geometry mixed with pure animal sprawl control. remember that dude from Spain, Sergio Moraes, back in 2017 in Brooklyn? Kamaru went twelve with the man, no drama, no clinic—just Methodical Butchery 101. Moraes tried rolling, switching, even threw the kitchen sink in round seven, and Kamaru answered every volley with a paw swipe that either bounced or went through. yet folks screamed “past it” then too until the referee slipped him out the exit. same script, different ring. Conor’s October clown show in London? Kamaru dissected it live on pay-per-view. twelve power shots landed in the first twenty seconds—yeah, twenty seconds—and Conor’s footwork looked like a drunk uncle dancing at a wedding. but don’t pretend those two bouts are the ruler for Usman’s entire career. Kamaru has always been the guy who makes opponents look cooked before the bell rings, not the guy who lets them gas themselves silly first. Leon got six months to plot revenge, sparring partners, altitude training, tactical seminars—yet still came out looking like he’d wrestled a grizzly after three minutes. Kamaru? ran his camp on three hours sleep a night, weights at 5 a.m., sparring 5k strikes while the rest of the division counted calories. the irony is that the louder people shout “past it,” the more Usman trains like a man who just inked his first pro contract. age is a calendar, not a sentence. Kamaru’s still in the lab, tweaking the knobs. McGregor’s out there flogging whiskey labels and doing stand-up timelines. chalk that up.

Saw Usman’s old footage from his Michigan camp last month—5 a.m. track runs in the dark, then 6 a.m. weights at the Henry Ford gym before the rest of the division even poured their first coffee. That’s the man we’re trying to write off because Conor did two bits of vaudeville in 2022-23? Leon crawled out of the cage in August with wheels missing and we’re told that’s Usman “aging”?

You ever watch a bloke pull the emergency brake on Father Time because some Twitter armchair vet forgot to scroll past the headline? I’ve seen Kamaru in pads this year—three weights sessions before his staff even unpacked the breakfast smoothie ingredients—and every single rep looked like it was filmed in 2015. He’s not fighting for the belt anymore; he’s treating the cage like a laboratory where he logs variables: hip torque in round four, sprawl retention with 3% glycogen drop, glove position after a left-body feint. Meanwhile, half the division’s out here selling narrative stock options on Instagram reels while their gas tanks read “empty” by the midpoint of round two. Leon walked into that August rematch like a man who’d just paid a personal trainer in Bitcoin; Kamaru walked out looking like the same wiry lad who broke Gilbert Burns’ jaw with a single step and a textbook overhand right. Same weight class, same gloves, different ledger. Age didn’t do the damage—critics with clipboards and short memories did. And now we’re supposed to pretend two drunken Conor sideshows are the court of final appeal? I keep flashing back to that winter camp in Albuquerque when Kamaru spent three weeks drilling calf raises on a Bosu ball because he’d noticed Leon favoured pushing off the left leg late in exchanges. Three weeks, one injury report that read zero. Meanwhile, half the welterweight leaderboard spends more time nursing hangovers than studying footwork. So the question isn’t whether Usman’s still elite—it’s whether we’ve all started measuring greatness with a ruler sized for TikTok clips instead of ten-round textbooks.